


Alternia Academy for the Gifted

by foreverwritingaround



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-10
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-18 08:43:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 46,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverwritingaround/pseuds/foreverwritingaround
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where everybody is human and goes to a private high school. When I say everybody I mean everybody (not the Beforus trolls yet sorry), that includes Calliope and Caliborn too! Nepeta is going through her freshman year in a whirl of excitement and constant fun, making friends and having adventures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nepeta (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a prologue, the real story begins in the next chapter. I will be updating as much as I can until the story is complete.

She’s the new girl, a freshman making friends with everybody she could. From her older friend Aradia she had met most of the boys. Sollux was a junior that had been her long-time boyfriend and a part of the computer club, Equius was a shy body builder and a junior on the wresting team that liked physics, Tavros had been the sophomore theatre geek with a passion for musicals and fantasy, Eridan was the senior that always looked for fresh meat to show off and always had short flings with girls but never any serious relationships.  
Karkat was the junior that didn’t do too much, and didn’t have many friends because of his surly attitude. She learned that once you got past that prickly exterior he was a very kind person, and he had a crush on one of the prettiest junior girls in school. Terezi was an all-around go getter that was caption of the debate club. She was best friends with another gorgeous junior girl named Vriska that had all the boys wrapped around her fingers. While Vriska was all long dark hair and tall black boots, Terezi was a workaholic, smart, with a short pixie haircut; she loved plaid button downs, and carried a cane everywhere, always wore sandals, and had a messenger bag with an old fashioned typewriter and papers on everything.  
A fashionista sophomore named Kanaya was the third girl to always be seen in that trio of babes. She had a huge purse where she kept her supplies for any fashion emergency that might occur during the average school day, and had a way with adding colors to black in the most amazing ways. She could also often be seen hanging out with Rose on sunny days under a tree, knitting and making costumes for the latest of Tavros’s musical masterpieces.  
John and Jade were sophomore twins that did everything together. Dave was a junior and Jade’s boyfriend. When Jade wasn’t with Tavros practicing her lines in a musical or being with John in Comedy Sportz and the movie club she was with Dave in the greenhouse, growing pumpkins and other flora and raising a vast variety of frogs and toads in the school pond. Nepeta always fluttered from group to group, feeling for all the world like the luckiest freshman to have made all these friends.  
John and Jade’s big sister Jane was also on the debate team and in a senior in theatre. Rose’s older sister Roxy ran a ‘virgin bar’ club that Jane baked loads of cookies and cakes for. Because Nepeta had a sweet tooth she loved going to their club, and because they thought she was adorable they usually gave her treats for free. Dave’s big brother and his boyfriend Jake ran a host club at the school, entertaining the ladies (and gents) after school. She would always go there with Equius to give him a confidence boost because he was always nervous around the girls and he had been drug into it for his ‘rugged good looks’ as Jake would always say.  
Feferi was the head of the student council of course, and in the shadow of most any teacher almost constantly. Either wearing the cheer outfit for their high school, a lovely light green, she was wearing the school uniform, "the correct way" she called it, with no modifications to the original outfit. She was a bubbly sort, quick to make friends between her school obligations, Sollux, her current other half (Sol) and cheer practice. With a quick stride and long hair in simple braids swinging as she moved, it was clear who had the leadership potential in the school. When lunch finally rolled around after the first half of the day, Feferi was usually the first at the table that occupied Aradia, Vriska, Sollux, of course, and a gaggle of other friends. No matter how they were all in the same school since forever, she thought it amazing that most of them had remained intact in their little circle. A group of all sorts, and if she was ever going to be a political major, she had to learn how to accept others for what they were. While they might not have thought too much about college or anything after their next class, Fef was another story. She planned everything to a T; from what she wore to if she used a pen or a pencil. To her, every decision must be made correctly, and with purpose.  
And so for the most part Nepeta was friends with everybody. Calliope always hung out with Roxy at the virgin bar club and her twin brother Caliborn sulked around the shadows, looking for other freshman to pick on whenever he wasn’t picking on Callie and her friends in the art club. The principal, Mr. Hussie, would often make rounds of the school during lunch time to talk to the students and view progress of clubs and classes. He often had Caliborn in his office for one thing or another, whether it was defacing school property with crappy graffiti or for pranking one of the other students. His sister always had a smile on her face even when Nepeta knew he’d been mean to her that day. High school for Nepeta Leijon was everything she had always dreamed it would be.


	2. Aradia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of school, and a few friends are made!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the beginning of the story, as we work our way through the school year, various characters will be introduced, and some of the chapters will have a specific character for themselves until they are all introduced!

As she walks through the halls on the first day of school she can’t help but notice the freshman in the blue cat hat. She’s wandering around, looking pretty lost and lonely, and as an upperclassman it’s her job to make the new kids feel welcome. So she walks up behind this little lost freshman and taps her on the shoulder.

“Hey hi I couldn't help but notice that you looked lost,” she smiles down at her, “My names Aradia, Aradia Megido. What’s your name?”

“Nepeta Leijon, and yeah I am kinda lost,” the freshman-no, Nepeta replies, “I’m looking for the first period freshman English class.”

“Ah, I know where it is I’ll show you. It’s right next to Sol’s computer tech class. And I think one of the Umbra twins is in that class and I also think the older Strider brother is the Teacher’s Assistant. He’s really funny I think you might like him if you can get him talking. Oh, and over there is the fashion class that Kanaya and Rose lord over. If you keep going straight down this hall you’ll find the practice room for the theatre department. My good friend Tavros is king in there! Let me think what else you could- oh silly me what am I doing? Going on and on about this stuff like you know who and what I’m talking about! I just get so excited about new students every year, that’s why Feferi put me in charge of helping you guys out to find all of your classes and such!”

“Yo Aradia,” a tall boy with glasses called out; pushing himself off the wall he was leaning on. Several girls walked away from him sighing and giggling, “Who’s the new girl?”

“Oh, Eridan. Don’t think you’re going to get your fins all over this one, I saw her first so she’s safe from you host club boys!”

Aradia play punched him in the arm as he walked over to the two girls. He gave her a scowl and then reached for Nepeta’s hand.

“It is so very nice to meet a lovely young lady such as you,” he murmured as he kissed her hand, “I do hope I’ll be seeing more of you soon, dearest.”

“What did I tell you Ampora? I said you can’t have this one,” Aradia pushed him, almost making him lose his balance and causing him to let go of Nepeta’s hand, “you need to learn how to listen bub.”

“Eridan, we’ve been looking all over for you!” Suddenly two guys with arms linked come around the corner. The one on the left, and the one who spoke, is a lanky blonde with pointy anime shades. The one on the right is a slightly geeky fellow with dark brown hair and square glasses.

“Yeah bro where have you been hiding? You know we have an important meeting today and I wanted to tell you about the latest theme for the club. Hey Aradia.”

“Hi Jake, Dirk! I want you to meet my new favorite freshman Nepeta! Isn’t she a doll? Just look at that hat, and those big green brown eyes! She’s perfection isn’t she? And Eridan can’t have her! Isn’t that just lovely?”

“Of course it is, Ampora doesn’t need to be allowed near the new girls or else they’ll all end up his hipster groupies or something awful like that.”

“Yeah Aradia way to go, Eridan you have too many ladies fawning at you as it is. One little girl isn’t going to kill you,” Jake teased.

“Shut up English I do what I want. She is quite the little catch though. I am determined to at least-OW Aradia what the hell, all I was going to say was be friends jeez.”

“You shut up Eridan so I can introduce Nepeta to Jake and Dirk. Nepeta, Jake is this dapper gentleman in the vest, and Dirk is the hottie in the lame shades.”

“Aradia watch what you say,” Jake warned, “I don’t share well you know.”

“Jake you can keep him, pointy anime shades and all his glory, I don’t need a man.”

“Well then my ladies, I bid you both adieus. Let’s go gents, Strider, Ampora, there’s work to be done here in these last precious moments before first period!”

“Whatever guys,” Eridan muttered as he turned away, thrusting his ringed hands into his pockets, “I hope to see you soon little fish, until next time, later Aradia. So guys what’s the…” And the remainder of the conversation was lost in all the hubbub around them. Aradia shot Nepeta a wry glance and then smiled.

“I’m surprised they didn’t drag you away and give you to Kanaya so she could put you in Lolita cosplay and use you as a prop for their host club. I could see the look in Jake’s eye. He would have her set you up in a blue beast of a thing, and make you walk around giving treats to their guests like a little maid. Actually when I think about it that would be very cute, and I know one boy that would probably die of dehydration from looking at you from all the sweat he’d be losing. Ha it would be adorable. I think I’ll personally take you to Kanaya myself for this purpose just to tease them all. Oh look there’s one of your classmates! Callie! Calliope! Come here deary!”

A petite ash blonde with huge green eyes came up to them then.

“Hello Aradia!” She said smiling, “Do you need me to show somebody to class? I can do it right away if you want me to! Is this her? Hi, I’m Calliope Umbra; you can call me Callie if you want! What’s your name?”

“Nepeta, Nepeta Leijon. It’s very nice to meet you Callie! Aradia told me we’re in the same English class I think. So it would be cool if we could be friends.”

“Oh it would just be jolly you have no idea! Come on then let’s go see if we can catch my brother in a good mood! I doubt it, he can be quite the pain in the rear but maybe if he meets someone nice like you he might come out of his silly little shell. There he is! Caliborn come here!”

“Callie, maybe you should wait to go introducing people to that brother of yours. I know you always want to make him less mean but it’s still early and you know him best. I can’t possibly imagine him as a morning person,” Aradia scolded as she caught up to the two, “and besides you’re all three in the same class. She’ll meet him when she gets there I’m sure. Now then, if you two are getting along so well I have a computer savvy guy to hunt down and a student council president to meet up with. I’ll see you both later okay? Because I’m fairly sure lunch for the freshman will be chaotic! I’ll see you two in a few hours alrighty?”

“Okay Aradia see you later!”

“Bye Aradia, thanks for all the help this morning,” Nepeta stuck in before Calliope could go off in her funny English accent again, “I’ll be glad to see you again later, I want to know about this sweaty guy you were talking about.”

“Ha yeah, you can get to know him alright! I think a cute little girl with a fun attitude is just what he needs to calm down. He gets enraged so easily…oh, FEF, wait up! I’ll see you two later! Feferi I need to talk to you about the Homecoming committee! We need to start planning for…”

“Wow she is so awesome! When I’m older, I want to be exactly like Aradia and Feferi! They know everybody and are always super nice, but come on Nepeta, class is going to start soon, and we don’t want to be late!”

And so the first day of school at Alternia Academy for the Gifted, a private academy, went on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this story, your comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome.


	3. Equius

Nepeta’s first three classes went by in a whirl of excitement. The fact that she’d been accepted to such a high end school made her so happy, and the fact that so many super amazing people already wanted to be her friends made it that much better. As she walked to lunch with Calliope talking her ear off she had to think about the brother she’d met in first period. He was sulking around in the back. A slim, pale blonde with eyes so dark blue they looked black, an aura of attitude that would keep even the strongest of heart away from him.

None the less, Nepeta didn’t have to worry about him for a while now. What she had to worry about was a series of upperclassmen boys cutting her in line for lunch. She knew she was small but not that small.

“Um, excuse me guys, you guys are cutting us, we were here first…hello, please listen…” Nepeta tried to get their attention but they ignored her. Suddenly, a tall guy with dark hair and square shades and muscles everywhere turned around from in front of them.

“Excuse me, I don’t know if you heard the lady, but she said you cut her in line,” the tall guy threatened, cracking gloved knuckles, “we wouldn’t want any casualties on the first day of school now do we? No? Then buzz off idiot sophomores!”  
The gang of boys raced off with looks of fear on their faces as they looked back on their menacing foe. Nepeta stayed where she was, not want to advance towards such a hostile boy until he smiled crookedly and took her hand in a gentle grip.

“Hello there,” he said, still with that crooked grin, “my name is Equius, Equius Zahhak, and I sincerely apologize if I frightened you while getting rid of those hooligans for you. Would you like to come stand with me? Your friend can too, oh hi Callie I didn’t realize it was you. But please do come stand with me, I would enjoy the company.”

“Hi Equius! This is Nepeta, she’s my super cool new mate isn’t that great? Aradia is going to dress her in blue Lolita and send her to the host club for you guys sometime soon! I bet you’d like that huh Equi?” There went Calliope’s mouth, forever running at a hundred miles an hour. The whole time she was spewing about blue Lolita and host clubs he stood and watched Nepeta. Just stood there and watched.

“I need a towel,” he suddenly popped off, “Calliope you know where the weight room is right? Please go and retrieve a towel or two for me...before I ruin my new uniform.”

“Oh right, of course Equi, just save my spot in line I’ll be back in a flash!”

As she dashed off towards what Nepeta could only assume was the weight room she looked back Equius and asked, “What’re the towels for?”

“They are for, um, well…I um, you see. I sweat a bit when I get nervous or excited about something. Callie can be so you know; she just says things that can be easily…uh, um. Never mind”

“Okay Equius, if you say so! I can understand that totally, it’s okay I’m not creeped out or anything!” Nepeta smiled and looked up at him, taking in his surprised expression.

“You’re not?” He asked doubtfully, “You’re really not put off or anything?”

“No way! It isn’t your fault that happens; it’s just how your body reacts to situations. Look here comes Calliope with your towels.”

With towels and lunches in hand the three started to drift away from the lunch line.

“Equi can we sit with you?” Calliope asked, “I don’t want to sit with my brother and because I’m a freshman I still don’t have many friends, please Equi?”

“If that isn’t too much trouble,” Nepeta interjected, “I don’t want to intrude or anything.”

“Oh it would be no problem at all ladies, see look. Ampora is waving us over.”

“Zahhak what are you doing with my catch of the day? She’s mine you know. You can’t have her.”

“Ampora, she isn’t your anything.”

“Yeah bro don’t you remember anything Aradia said this morning?”

These statements made by Jake and Dirk, who were sauntering over arm in arm with two bags of fast food.

“I hope you remembered my tuna melt,” Eridan spat, “you two always get some other weird crap for me.”

“We felt charitable this fine afternoon,” Jake said with a bow, “your tuna melt.”

Equius pulled out a chair for Nepeta to sit down. She smiled at him and took the seat as he pushed her gently into the table. Callie sat down next to Jake and Dirk on the other side across from them next to Eridan. As Equius sat down in the empty seat next to Nepeta Eridan shot him a dirty look over his sandwich. 

“What’s the matter Ampora? Jealous that the junior is sitting next to ‘your catch’? You should’ve been there when she was being bullied, then she’d like you better.”

“You just wait Zahhak, she’s going to come to the club and then we’ll see who she likes the most! I bet you anything I’ll-OW what the hell…Aradia come on!”

“Hello boys,” Aradia replied, “what did I tell you this morning Eridan? She won’t be grabbed up by you host club boys.”

“But Aradia, you’re the one that said you were going to have Kanaya make Nepeta a Lolita dress and send her to them! Don’t you remember?” Calliope interjected with a confused look, “You said it would be adorable didn’t you?”

“Yes I did, but that was mostly a joke, and besides I wouldn’t actually give her up she’s way too sweet and innocent to be their mascot anyways. Oh hey Dirk, don’t look at her like that I just said no.”

“Bro, she would be perfection. It would be so ironic with her little hat. That exact shade of blue…maybe a little bit darker…”

“Against her skin tone? Absolutely gorgeous!” Jake finished as he fished out a cell phone. 

“Jake what are you doing? Who are you calling? Jake give me the cell phone! Now, please. I said now!”

There was a bunch of hubbub as Aradia fought for control of the cell phone, but in the end Dirk coolly grabbed it and said, “I’m calling Kanaya, a plan this cool can’t be stopped Aradia. Just imagine all the dough we’re going to rake in if she helps us. Ha, we’ll be the best damn club in this whole school.”

“Oh no you don-shoot Jake get off me! Gah no Dirk stop, Nepeta what do you have to say about all this? Isn’t it just annoying that they think you’ll go along with their stupid plan just because they’re upperclassmen? Well Nepeta?”

“I think its ok as long as I get to make new friends,” she replied honestly, “there’s nothing wrong with their plan is there? It’s not like I have to do anything weird right? So there’s nothing to worry about! I’m glad to help in any way I can.”

“Hey Jake I want a Lolita dress too!” Calliope called out, “Can I wear green? Green and yellow!”

“Heck yes that’s an amazing idea! Two little cuties wandering the club with sweetmeats and refreshments! Dirk, tell Kanaya there’s another one!”

“No Dirk do not tell Kanaya there is another one! I can’t believe you boys, you’re out of control I am so out of here, I’ll come back and try to convince you two of the error of your ways! Sheesh Jake you can get off me now…”

Jake got up off of Aradia and as she stormed off to the table she was originally sitting at Dirk came back with Jake’s cell.

“Kanaya says she wants to see them after school. She said her and Rose have nothing better to do because Tav hasn’t picked any plays to do yet and they have idle fingers and a giant budget. So I guess you two will have your Lolita dresses and we get two cute little maids to help us around the club. Isn’t this great Zahhak? Ampora, I know you think it’s great you freak so keep your yap shut.”

“YAY! I get to meet Kanaya and Rose! They are the best designers in the whole school, Nepeta this is great!” Calliope was practically floating towards the ceiling with excitement, 

“Are you excited Nepeta?!”

“I guess so, thanks guys I’ve never had something like that. I bet it will be perfect.”

“She’s so cute I’m going to die, please let me have her as my personal maid at the club? Dirk? Jake?” Eridan inquired.

“NO!” the two said in unison. And everybody laughed.

And the day kept on rolling.


	4. Kanaya and Rose

“So these are my two little models? Aren’t they just adorable?” A black haired girl with ivory skin asked, “What do you think Rose? Can we make them anymore adorable than they already are?”

A blonde with short hair held back by a hair band looked up from a pile of knitting, “Kanaya, you can make anybody more adorable. Even that annoying Ampora if you wanted to. They are both similar height and build. However, the difference with the skin tones could make for some very intriguing color combinations. I’m ready to get started on this whenever you are.” 

“Well, let us have at it then! Come on, up up! You have been sitting in that glorious pile of knitwear all day! Now, where is my measuring tape...?”

“Right here, around your neck. Like always," Rose replied grabbing the tape off from around her neck.

“Do you guys stay in here all day or something?” Nepeta asks, taking in the mounds of fabrics, the sketches and mannequin’s, 

“Could maybe Calliope get measured first? I kinda wanna see it before it is my turn, if that is okay with you...”

“Of course darling, the poor thing looks like she would fall over dead if we didn’t start with her. Come here sweetie, your name is Calliope? I have heard a great deal already from the art teacher, have you heard of some of her works that she did in junior high, Rose? I have always heard they were simply fabulous.” 

“I think I did once or twice at that one art exhibit we went to during the summer. And then there was that blog Tav showed us last week, you know? The one with all the…”

They walked away, leaving Nepeta alone to look at all of the things in the room. As she walked through the tall racks of costumes, she read titles of plays they had been from. Last year alone seemed to have had over ten of them. Sleeping Beauty, Gone With the Wind, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, the Sound of Music, the Fantastiks, and a whole slew of others were lined up on carts labeled with ‘last year’ and ‘TN’. She was beginning to wonder what TN stood for when she heard something slip and fall behind her. She whirled around to find a skinny guy with a short Mohawk and big gold colored eyes coming out from underneath one of the racks. He gave her a look and then smiled, holding up a pair of what she could only think of as pantaloons.

“I found what I was looking for!” The guy said, beaming, “I’m really lucky I have Kanaya to take care of all my stuff here, otherwise where would I find all of the stuff I need to recreate and mix and match costumes? Besides you know, uh, actually…let me, you know, start over again! My names Tavros, Tavros Nitram! Everybody just calls me Tav for short so, uh, you can too if you want.”

“Hi Tavros, my names Nepeta. Um, well, people just call me Nepeta so I guess you can call me that too. By any chance, are your initials the ones on the racks?”

“Yep all these plays were either something I played in or directed! I love the theatre, the imagination, the lights, and the color. People don’t understand what it’s like to be up there on the, uh, stage. It’s really fun, and ever since I started a couple years ago I have had a major confidence boost! Maybe someday I’ll, uh, finally be able to ask out that girl!”

Tavros had been bunching up that fabric and looking down at his shoes, sandals with socks. Nepeta thought he was a nice guy and maybe if he was shy before he was a lot more confident now.

“I can see it,” she said and he looked up at her.

“See what?”

“How the theatre has changed you. When you’re talking about it you sound so excited and brave, I could never ever go up on stage! I bet you anything if you asked out that girl she would go out with you because you are a very nice person.”

“You think so? Well you don’t know her…she can be, well, a bit overwhelming and she’s way out of my league. She’s one of the prettiest girls in school with that dark hair…and those eyes. Her eyes are two different colors! So pretty…no she would probably date somebody like Eridan if he wasn’t such a jerk or maybe even John because he’s got a lot of talent too but he’s more out there.”

“No way I’m serious Tavros if you just ask her I’m sure she would say yes. Don’t necessarily ask her to be your girlfriend but maybe ask her on a date! I guess girls really like dates so you should try that you know!”

“Nepeta it’s your turn for measurements!” Kanaya called from somewhere in the back of the huge room, “Did you get lost somewhere? Oh hello Tav I didn’t know you were here. I see you met the little darling Nepeta. Isn’t she a doll?”

She’s very, uh, kind Kanaya I’m glad to have met her. She got me thinking about some things I never thought of before and I, uh, think her ideas are great. I have to find John and give him these and see if they fit him, we might, uh, do Les Misérables this year for the first show!”

“I love that play Tav, and the book as well. It’s on my favorite book shelf back at home,” Kanaya said, “well Tavros you have things to do right? We will see you later for costume ideas I assume.”

“Always Kanaya! I’ll, uh, see you later then!”

“Good bye Tavros, now then Nepeta, what would you like your dress to look like? Calliope’s will be short, a few inches above the knee and full of frills and lace. You should have heard her go on and on about it, it was quite funny.”

“I don’t know what that kind of stuff looks like. I guess since you guys are the creators you can make it whatever you want. As long as I can keep my hat with me, right?”

“Oh course dear, that was one of the requirements Dirk and Jake said. They specifically stated that ‘the colors must match the hat’ so we decided to go with varying shades of blue and black. What do you think?”

“That sounds nice. I remember Jake saying something about blue before. Something about my skin?”

“Yes blue would bring out the golden hues of your skin very well. And I think a little pair of sparkling flats to go with it. Yes, and black stockings. Rose are you ready for Nepeta now?”

“Yes Kan, but can you take care of it? I want to draw this out while Callie is here so she knows exactly what it will look like,” she said while looking over a huge pile of fabrics, “plus I want to pick out the fabric and the lace pattern you know, the host club boys probably expect these to be done relatively soon…annoying as most of them are…” She disappeared behind the mound muttering.

“Yes of course I can handle it Rose, ask me such a ridiculous question, come over here then Nep we can get your measurements all done. Then we can send you off to the boys.”

“How long will it take to make them? You guys do have normal classes right?”

“Of course we do. We are just sophomores after all. We just spend lunch, and after school here pretty much every day we can. Plus we run the fashion club so we have that on our plates as well.”

For a few minutes she was silent as she measured every inch of Nepeta’s body. She kept re-measuring and giving her looks.

“You need to eat more.”

“I eat like a pig you don’t even know! I just never gain weight I guess.”

Kanaya poked her in the ribs, “Oh well I guess some people get all of the luck then.”

“Hey guys! My dress is gonna be so pretty! Rose you’re amazing!”

“Well I suppose. Our talents should not be squandered,” Rose said to Callie, “besides its fun to make stuff like this so chill out.”


	5. Feferi

It had been a month now since the first day of school. October brought with it fall colors and a whirl of excitement about an upcoming assembly. The student council president was going to speak about upcoming events for the next few months.

“Good morning everybody, as you all know we try to have a lot of events at this school to keep things fun! So this month we are going to have a Halloween masquerade ball! It will be the coolest dance to start off the beginning of the year, don’t you all think? In November we will have Homecoming, the theme of which has yet to be decided by the committee. Then in December we will have a Yuletide ball before Christmas break, and when we come back after New Year’s yet another dance for you all to have fun. I hope everybody enjoys all these amazing upcoming dances, and I hope to see you all there. Kanaya and Rose will be available to commission costume and dress designs, or you can purchase your costumes elsewhere. Calliope and the art club will be taking commissions for props and masks for the masquerade. Here is the treasurer with ticket prices and other necessities. Also, if you would like to volunteer for decoration committee please see me afterwards.”

The rest of the assembly went by with standard amounts of boredom tied to not paying attention to a word anybody was saying up on stage. Nepeta sat in between Calliope and Terezi Pyrope, who she had just met the other day because of her English teacher. On the other side of her was a girl that looked like she’d fall asleep if the assembly kept going any longer.

“Rezi can we blow this Popsicle stand already? Who cares about a stupid dance or something anyways? Not like anybody’s gonna ask me so can we leave. Rezi seriously come on lets go. Please?”

“No Vriska we aren’t going anywhere yet. And I happen to know somebody that wants to ask you to Homecoming so shut up and pay attention. Or play your stupid little puzzle games on your iPod,” Terezi said, looking at her for only a minute, “besides Vris, I’m busy talking to Nepeta and Calliope here. They’re the ones we saw in the Lolita dresses at the host club’s party.”

“Which one of the loser guys jostling to get my attention are going to try a stunt like that? They’re all idiots. Every one of them and I won’t go to a dance with any idiot. So who is it Terezi?”

“He is definitely not one of the ‘idiots jostling to get your attention’. He’s a very nice boy and you shouldn’t be so heartless towards your admirers. You use them enough as it is Vriska.”

“He isn’t is he? Well this ought to be interesting to find out. An admirer from afar? A Casanova? Is he hot Rezi? Maybe I’ll look into him if he’s hot.”

“He’s pretty cute Vriska. And he’s liked you for a while idiot, how can you not know this?”

“Shut up Terezi I won’t talk to you if you’re going to be cagey about this. I’m leaving.”

“No you are not,” Terezi grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down, “I bet you the principal is wandering the halls just waiting for you especially to be wandering around.”

“Oh god you’re right…he does have some weird obsession…fine I’ll stay dammit,” Vriska retorted as she slumped back down into her chair, “I don’t want that creeper finding me. Who ever thought it was a good idea to have a young principal anyways?”

The assembly ended about fifteen minutes before lunch was over so everybody was given the extra time to go eat. Dirk, Jake, Eridan, and Tavros came up to Vriska, Terezi, Nepeta, and Calliope as they discussed what to do for lunch.

“Hey ladies, got any plans for lunch on this fine day?” Jake asked when they got close enough to be heard.

“No Jake what’s up? We were just thinking about grabbing a bite to eat in the cafeteria. I’m too lazy to walk all the way out to my car,” Terezi said, “plus I don’t have my glasses or my contacts so I’m crazy blind.”

“How did you get here today then?”

“Magic, duh.”

“Magic isn’t real, and we are all old enough to know that,” Eridan huffed.

“It was a joke. Anyways what do you have in mind Jake?” Terezi asked.

“I brought my VW Bus today so I have enough seats. Let’s go to the pizzeria and chill out,” he enthused.

“Yeah his green beast of a gross polluter,” Dirk teased.

“Shut up, Dirk who asked you? Anyways let’s go so we can get a good seat.”

They all walked out to the bus Jake opened the side doors for everybody to get in. Nepeta climbed all the way in the back and scooted all the way to the driver’s side, Dirk climbed in shot gun and Eridan gave him a dirty look.

“I will not sit in the back, Dirk let me have shot gun.”

“Hell no Eridan, my man’s car, my seat, I’m his wingman. I get shot gun, so get your ass in the back.”

“Fine, whatever, I’ll go sit by Nepeta.”

So he climbed in next to Nepeta and Terezi climbed in after him. Then Calliope and Vriska climbed into the bench seats in front of them. Tavros looked at the situation with a bleak expression on his face and then hopped into the last remaining seat by Vriska. 

“Are we all in?” Jake asked as he started the engine.

“Yeah we are,” Terezi called out.

“Then we’re off to the-”

“JAKE WAIT!” Dirk yelled, “We should take Feferi with us.”

“Get in loser; we’re going to the pizzeria!” Jake yelled at Feferi.

“Who are you calling a loser, loser? What makes you think I want pizza today?” She yelled back.

“Free food, free drinks, and a break from Sollux?”

“I don’t need a break from Sollux, what makes you say I need a break from Sollux?”

“The way you said that little miss class ruler. Get in the van, Dirk scoot over here.”

Fef got in the front seat after Dirk moved into the middle of the bench seat and Jake put his arm around his shoulders and asked, “Where were you headed anyways?”

“To my car,” she replied, “I was going to the pizzeria.”

“Shut up girl you make me so mad! What happened to the snooty ‘what makes you think I want pizza’?”

“I do things to make you mad it’s funny”

“She’s evil on the inside haven’t you boys learned that by now,” Vriska said, leaning up to rest her arms on the front seat, “she can be very sly when she wants to be, I know from experience.”

“Shoosh, Vriska nobody needs to know that I’m not a goody two shoes like they all think I am. I need to have fun too,” Fef retorted.

Terezi turned just in time to see Eridan getting all up in Nepeta’s business. She let him continue to see what Nepeta would do but she sat there like a bump on a log. 

“I’m going to tell Aradia on you,” she whispered.

“Dammit what is it with you girls and not letting me have a little fun?”

“Eridan, somebody else has already called dibs on Nepeta, honestly you shouldn’t touch her he might get really, really mad,” Jake said, looking in the rear view mirror.

“Yeah Eridan you heard him during the meeting on the first day of school. He’s dead set and you know it,” Dirk agreed.

“It would be a shame if he beat you to a bloody pulp and got expelled. It’s a good thing he has all his activities to get all that excess energy out.”

“Yeah, Eridan she’s not even into you look at her face. She’s just like ‘I can’t stand this guy’.”

“No I’m not!” Nepeta muttered, “I’m just too confused about what all of you are saying and trying to do here.”

“Well my little catch I’m only trying to win you over, you like me don’t you?”

“Eridan I’ve known you for a month how would I know?” Nepeta scowled at him and crossed her arms.

“Just look at her guys, you can’t tell me she isn’t super cute! Look at that scowl, the way she’s all in a huff! That’s true adorableness right there!” 

“Eridan you’re a windbag shut up. You aren’t allowed to sit next to Nepeta during lunch or on the way back to school,” Jake decided.

“What the hell kind of deal is that Jake, you can’t tell me what to do,” Eridan spat.

“Shut up Eridan nobody cares,” Vriska yelled, “I have a feeling that if who I think they’re talking about has called dibs I would keep my hands off. Don’t be an idiot.”

He threw his hands up, “Fine look see! Hands off dammit.”

“Good news chap, I really would hate to see how much business we would lose if you came up bruised and ugly,” Jake said with a sly smile.

“Whatever.”

With that they arrived at the pizzeria. Jake ran ahead to get them a table and order two extra-large cheese pizzas for the group. When everybody came in Jake was standing next to a U-shaped booth.

“Eridan, get in,” he gestured.

“What are you talking about English? I will sit wherever I want.”

“No you will sit where I tell you or walk back to school.”

“Fine, idiots”

Eridan sat at the end and Jake slid in followed by Dirk, Feferi, Terezi, Vriska, Calliope, Nepeta, and Tavros. They talked for a while until the pizza got there.

“You got only cheese Jake?” Eridan asked.

“Well I just didn’t want to get meat in case anybody’s preference was veggies, so I got cheese because I know nobodies lactose intolerant.”

“That’s what you-Terezi what the hell? A spit wad really what is this, the fourth grade? Get a life.”

“For a blind girl that was a good shot Rezi,” Vriska said.

“Thanks for the half compliment Vriska.”

“OKAY before we all fall into a pile of killing each other let’s enjoy this pizza, Nep you got the paper plates right?” Jake asked, giving everybody dirty looks, “I guess serve up the food little maid.”

“Whatever you say, Jake Senpai. Gosh that’s such a stupid thing, I won’t say it anymore Jake. I won’t say it for you either Dirk.”

“Fine Nepeta chan we won’t hold it against you,” Dirk said as she handed him his plate of pizza.

“Don’t call me Nepeta chan either I think it’s dumb. We aren’t in japan even if you want it. Lame pointy anime shades and all.”

“Oh great they have you calling my shades lame too now? What a mess.”

“I have never seen a more dapper fellow Dirk,” Calliope said.

“Don’t suck up Callie it isn’t healthy,” Terezi whispered, “Watch this. SPIT BALLS AWAY!”

“Oh hell no-GAH TEREZI NO STOP THIS IS DISGUSTING YOU’RE MAKING A SCENE!”

Now plastered in spit wads, Eridan stood up and shook himself off, “that was beyond disgusting Terezi.”

As he sat back down Nepeta came up to him.

“Here Eridan have a napkin,” Nepeta said as she held one out to him, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto his lap.

“Thank you sweetie. Now then, how about a…” and he pulled her face to his and kissed her.

“ERIDAN!”

“ERIDAN AMPORA SO HELP ME-”

“WOAH DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

“AHAHA ERIDAN WAY TO GO!”

“Eridan, when Aradia finds out about this you are so dead,” Terezi said calmly as she added parmesan to her pizza.

“That’s ok Terezi it was so worth it,” he said with an evil grin on his face. 

“Eridan you don’t just go kissing underclassmen that is so wrong,” Feferi complained.

“Dude I’m gonna message Zahhak in about three seconds if you don’t let her go,” Dirk intoned.

“What’s he got to do with anything? Besides she isn’t fighting being held now is she?” Eridan sneered.

“Look at her face, she’s stunned.” Calliope whispered.

“I don’t think she knows what to do,” Vriska laughed, “punch him in his jewels Nepeta you can do it!”

“Nepeta don’t do that I’d have to report you for violence to an upper…what are you doing?”

She was looking at Eridan, she narrowed her eyes. Then she pecked him on the lips and pushed him over. She blushed so hard and red a tomato would be jealous. Vriska and Terezi roared with laughter and Jake’s jaw dropped. Dirk just sat there with no expression on his face and Tavros and Calliope just stared at Nepeta as she sat down. Eridan remained where she pushed him over, staring at the ceiling with a bemused expression on his face.

“See guys, I told you she liked me,” he whispered, surprised, “she kissed me back see?”

“Guys the pizzas going to get cold and we do have to go back to school soon,” Terezi reminded, “look, Nepeta, Tav and Callie got this right they’re eating. Now all of you stop being stupid and eat your lunch.”


	6. The Beta Kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEW: Now illustrated by the fabulous Radiodistractive, thanks so much darling!  
> Hopefully we'll have some more because this artist's work is so cute.

The week of the big Halloween masquerade was upon Alternia Academy. Nepeta had taken to helping Kanaya and Rose with errands like delivering finished costumes to people before school and during lunch, and handing out appointment slips to people that had fittings or alteration coming up. She knew the two of them were making her costume, even though she’d told them she didn’t want to go. She hadn’t been asked by any boys anyways, so why bother going alone? Calliope was going with some random guys Nepeta didn’t remember the name of, Kanaya and Rose were going together, Dave and Jade was a matching pair, Dirk and Jake, Feferi and Sollux. For the most part that’s all she could remember, although she knew of somebody that was procrastinating asking his date if she would go with him.

“Tavros,” Kanaya snapped, “stop crushing that silk, it’s imported!”

“Sorry Kan, I’m just really nervous,” he muttered putting the silk down, “what if she doesn’t show up?”

“She will Tav don’t worry. I told her it was important on the appointment slip. Do you have everything ready?”

“Yeah, she likes blue, so I got these, uh, Denbrodium orchids. They’re really pretty, like her. So I hope she likes them!”

He held up a large bouquet of vibrant blue flowers, “these are, uh, super rare I guess. They usually bloom purple or white. But I made sure to have blue ones. They come from my garden at home.”

“Shhhhh! Hide them she’s coming!” Rose whispered.

Tavros put the bouquet behind him back and stared at his toes as Vriska came up to the group holding up a slip with Kanaya’s hand writing on it, “what’s the big idea Kanaya I got my costume finished up a week ago what could possibly be important now?”

“Don’t ask me Vris, ask Tavros,” she said around a mouthful of straight pins.

“What’s up Tavros? Are you going to the masquerade dude? I know you can dance because I’ve seen you do it on stage,” Vriska told him as she looked at him through narrowed eyes.

“You’ve, uh, seen me on stage Vriska? You mean you’ve been to my plays?”

“Yeah dude I mean come on what else is good to do around here? Your plays are nice I enjoy them.”

“Oh wow, Vriska I didn’t know that,” he mumbled to his feet, “I actually have a question for you.”  
Vriska leaned up against a table and crossed her ankles, “Yeah what’s up Tav? I kind of figured you did when Kanaya said you had something to say,” she said with a smile.

He pulled out the flowers, “Vriska, I know you’ve probably been asked by somebody else, and you probably already have a date, but I was wondering if…if you would, uh, be my date to the dance? But only if you don’t already have one because you know, you’re so beautiful and I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a whole host of boys taking you to the-”

“Shhhhh Tavros,” she whispered, covering his lips with her fingers, “I don’t have a date for the dance, and I was really hoping you would ask me.”

Kanaya and Rose gave each other a look, “she was?” Kanaya mouthed.

“She said yes?” Rose mouthed back.

Vriska and Tavros hadn’t moved from where they were standing, his eyes were wide open and she was smiling at him. She took her hand away and touched one of the flowers, “these are really pretty.”

“You, uh, you really think so?”

“Yeah dude, come on let’s go plan for the night, I have a limo we could use and…”  
As they walked away Vriska took his hand, Nepeta smiled at their backs.

“I told him if he just asked she would probably say yes,” she said, “he didn’t believe me but I knew he would do it someday.”

“When did you tell him this Nep?” Kanaya inquired as she sewed a bow onto a gown, “I do not remember you two ever having a heart to heart.”

“It was on the first day of school. That was what I was telling him when I was waiting for you guys to finish measuring Calliope.”

“Oh yes now I remember. He started making plans for this shortly after the first week of school. That is really very kind of you to be like that for him. He has so many friends I am amazed nobody has given him a boosting speech yet.”

“It isn’t all that surprising Kan; most people aren’t insightful when it comes to others. I think it just comes naturally to Nepeta. Look at how she can calm Equius when he gets angry at someone, she’s been to every wrestling match with a towel and water for him, or the way she keeps the host boys from killing each other. She’s a people person Kanaya, she just has the right stuff for it,” Rose explained from where she was knitting, “look at all the people she’s befriended, and then count how many were made on the first day and during the first week of school. People love her Kan, that’s all there is to it.”

“There she is!” A voice called from the doorway, “I’ve been looking all over for you Nepeta.”

“Hi Eridan, you’re late for your fitting appointment,” Nepeta scolded as she walked back towards the rack where boys costumes were held, “we’re on a tight schedule Eridan.”

“She’s right Eridan, there are a lot of people with appointments and not enough time in the day,” Rose agreed, “Nepeta it’s the one in the blue bag, yeah that one.”

“Here Eridan go try it on over there behind that curtain,” Nepeta handed him the garment bag, “and then when you’re done come over here so Kanaya or Rose can put pins where ever they need to go.”  
After he’d walked across the room and behind the curtain Kanaya looked over at Nepeta from the stool she was sitting on, “I heard you kissed him once, when you went with Jake and the others to the pizzeria.”

“He kissed me first! And it isn’t like I wanted him to either he dragged me onto his lap so I couldn’t get away!” She hissed indignantly.

“Yes, but I heard you kissed him again after that. Are you interested in him Nepeta? He is a total sleaze and he has broken the hearts of half the girls at this school. I would not recommend sending him the wrong kind of signal.”

“I’m sorry Kan. I didn’t mean to make you worry; I was just messing with him. I don’t really like any boys yet. I guess that’s surprising considering all the nice boys I know. I just see them all as good friends! There hasn’t been a reason to look at one more special than the others. It would seem mean because all of them are good friends as well, so I don’t really want to pick any over another.”

“Wow no wonder she can calm the beast inside Equius, listen to how she is, it’s no wonder some of the boys have fallen prey to her charms,” Rose said.

“What Equi and I are just friends!”

“Nepeta you’ve been to every one of his wrestling tournaments and you always go out for shakes or something after, seriously girl. Why are you so dense?”

“Rose I’m not dense. I go because he asked me to and that’s all. It’s not like he has a crush on me or something there are way prettier girls for him to like. And I’m two years younger than him so why would he like me.”

“Equius is not one to judge a girl based on looks. He goes for what is in the heart, and it would take a very good heart indeed to calm him down when he is angry,” Kanaya explained.

“You girls astound me every year!” Eridan came out of the dressing room in his costume. It was a black tuxedo with a violet undershirt, and a cape that billowed out behind him as he walked. He smiled at Kanaya and Rose as they circled him and checked the fit, “It fits like a glove, absolutely dreamy, you’ve really outdone yourselves this year.”

“Good thing too,” Kanaya said, “because we have another appointment about to come in right now, and we need all the space we can get because they are on an even tighter schedule than we are.”

“Oh right the three of them are coming in together right? I guess I could take the time to have you finish mine right Kan,” Rose inquired.

“Yes that’s fine,” she replied, “okay Eridan it’s finished, go change and you can put the check in the box in the front office, we’ll be checking for it later.”

“Right then, and before I forget, take this Nepeta, it’s for you,” he handed her a pretty grass green envelope with a gold sticker holding closed, “read it when you get the chance. I’ll be going now, because I know these two ladies want me out of here.”

He went back into the dressing room and changed, and as he was walking out the door three people came walking in.

“Hey bro,” the blonde-ish boy in the front said.

“Hi Eridan!” the girl holding his hand said.

“Sup Eridan!” the last boy said

“Hey guys, I’m out of here to give you all the space. See all of you later.”

“Rose, I’m so excited to see my dress!” the girl walked up to them.

“Jade you know we can provide, come over here I’ll change with you and we can talk,” Rose said as the two walked away.

“Hey Kanaya! Is my super cool suit done yet?”

“John it’s no big thing cool your jets.”

“Dave, I’ll have you know that your idea of matching suits was lame, and mine was better, so you should be happy I saved us from the lameness.”

“Oh, right, you are too cool. Like, so cool hell just froze over. We should all be careful because the devils gonna come knocking because big bad John Egbert froze over hell,” Dave retorted, “Kanaya, tell him he’s an idiot.”

“I will do no such thing,” she said as she handed them both their garment bags, “just go change and come back here quickly, I know you do not have the time to bicker like that.”

“We don’t,” John took his bag and started walking towards the curtains, “he just seems to think we have all the time in the world!”

“You’re so full of hot air John shut up for a minute before I ask my bro to cut my own ears out, you really need to chill bro.”

They disappeared behind their own curtained off sections as Rose and Jade came out of theirs, “maybe I should have Rose take care of this over there, I don’t want Dave seeing me in this until the night of the dance.”

“Don’t worry Jade it’s pretty much done, but I do want to up the hem a tad there, and that ribbon, scooch over this way a little so I can finish this one. There okay now you look gorgeous don’t you think Rose, she looks like a dream straight out of space itself,” Kanaya cooed.

Jade’s dress was black, with a high waistline that fell gracefully to the floor in the back, and to her knees in the front. The bodice was plain, but below the green band around her waist on the skirt, thousands of rhinestones in different shapes and sizes had been added to the fabric so that it looked like the night sky. She held up a black mask made of crow feathers to her face and smiled. With her dark hair and all that black looked like she stepped out of the fabric of space itself.

“Dave do you have yours on yet?” they could hear John ask from his curtained room.

“Oh no go go go go!” Rose whispered and shooed her away, “help me put on my dress when we get back in there”

John walked out of his dressing room in a green tuxedo with coattails over a black shirt. As he came over Dave came out in his own tux, black over a red shirt. The two looked stunningly perfect together in their tuxedos, and Kanaya gave them a nod, “You will look great playing the piano in that John. It will be like we are at a concert or something else lovely.”

“I can’t wait to play for everybody; it will be such a treat to finally play as the Beta Kids this year! We’ve been practicing so hard to write songs that everybody will enjoy to dance to as slow dances and also some upbeat ones. With Strider on the turntables we don’t have anything to lose,” John enthused.

“But we will have a chance to have fun too,” Rose said as she came out in her dress.  
It was a simple black gown with a wide purple band around her middle that was connected to wide ribbons that fluttered as she walked and fell to the ground when she stopped. The sleeves were purple lace that went to her wrists, and the skirt was slightly hooped, so she looked like a dark princess. She smiled at Kanaya and then the boys and said, “really though, I wouldn’t want to waste the night away up on stage when I’ll have such great company waiting for me.”

“We have a DJ playing for the rest of the night, we just open the dance,” Jade clarified.

“Nepeta look, Eridan forgot his mask,” Kanaya said, “hurry and run over to the host club’s room and give it to him before he leaves.”

“Umm okay Kanaya,” she said grabbing the mask.  
When she left the room she pulled out the lovely envelope, ‘how did he know my favorite color is green?’ she thought as she opened it. It held a ticket to the dance and a hand written note,

“Nepeta,  
I hope that you will do me the honor of allowing me to escort you to the ball. You are a princess and deserve to be treated like one. Please give me the chance despite what others might say about my advances. I will not force you to go. If you do not want to go with me, keep the ticket. I will still ask for a dance though.  
Eridan.”

She stared at the note with wide eyes and then smiled. What was it with all these people and treating her like something fragile? As she came up to the door to the host club room, Nepeta took a deep breath. She hadn’t been in the new room yet, but from what Callie had told her it was even more sumptuous than the old one.

When she walked in the sound of talk and the clink of plates and cups greeted her. Calliope was flitting about group to group serving tea and soda and snacks. Nepeta saw Equius surrounded by several girls that were touching his muscles, Dirk and Jake were being mobbed by waves of ladies and gents all trying to get their attention at once for some reason. Eridan was lounging by a bar that was manned by Roxy mixing virgin versions of drinks and chatting with several people.

Calliope waved from the corner of the room and smiled, and Nepeta waved back. She made her way over to the bar and sat down next to Eridan. He looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow and smiled.

“You forgot your mask back there in the costume room,” she said handing the violet and black jeweled mask, “Kanaya asked me to bring it to you before you left.”

“Janey where are the cupcakes?” Roxy called out behind her to a small blocked in cubby hole.

“Right here, rainbow sprinkles just like you asked for,” a girl with short hair and red rimmed glasses said, “who’s the girl Eridan? A new admirer?”

“Hopefully my date for the dance,” he replied looking at Nepeta.  
Nepeta pulled the envelope from her pocket and looked down at it. She wasn’t going to say no because he honestly seemed to like her. She looked up at him with the nicest smile she could muster and said, “of course I’ll let you escort me to the dance! What better date is there if you call me a princess than one of the school princes?”

“That is just the most adorbs thing I have ever heard, Eridan if you break her heart I will break your face. Don’t think I won’t either,” Roxy whispered into his ear.

“I need a tissue,” Jane muttered, “D’awwwwwwww why is she so cute?!”

Eridan took Nepeta’s hands into his own, “I will try very hard indeed not to break her heart. It would be a terrible waste,” he smiled, “you don’t have to worry about a thing Nepeta.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make this chapter really long and stuff but I decided I’d break it into two chapters. Anyways shameless AU OTP over here so enjoy this one and chapter seven will be up in a jiffy!!!!!!!! Love and hugs to everybody.


	7. Chapter 7

It was the day before the dance and Nepeta had just gotten a slip of paper from Kanaya about an appointment. She had known for a long time that Kan and Rose were making her dress, but she hadn’t seen it yet. They had used her measurements from the Lolita to make it so they hadn’t needed her as a model. As the bell rang ending her last period, she made her way towards the costume warehouse room.

“There you are! Come here dear we need to make absolutely sure you look beautiful in this gown we made for you,” Rose bustled her over and put a blind fold over her eyes, “but you can’t see it yet! Not till it’s on you!”

“This makes me afraid for myself,” she responded, “Rose is it some beast of a thing?”

“It is most certainly not a beast, you did put on a slip right?”

“Yeah I did a white sleeveless like you asked.”

“Good.”

She blindly took off her uniform and stood in her slip. She could hear rustling and then her foot was grabbed and put into a ring of fabric. She followed with her other foot and then felt rose pull up the costume until it was below her arms. Rose lifted her arm up and zipped a zipper. Then she lead her over to what she assumed were the mirrors. Then she took off the blindfold.

Nepeta gasped as she took in the gorgeous gown. It was a sweeping gown of a beautiful sea blue, brushing the floor with every step; it was made of a rich satin skirt and went up to a sleeveless sweetheart neckline, edged in darker blue velvet. A tasseled belt adorned her waist, ropes tied behind her back and flowing with the dress. It was accessorized with elbow length royal blue gloves. She twirled around in front of the mirror and stared at herself. Then she jumped up and hugged Rose. 

“Whoa hey calm down sweetie! It’s no big deal I promise! Hey don’t cry what’s wrong?”

“I’ve never had anything this amazing before, Rose this is so amazing I never want to take it off ever again!”

“Oh honey, you look so incredible,” Kanaya whispered as she walked around the corner, “all the other girls will be hard pressed to look better than you when we all waltz. Eridan is going to simply fall over dead.”

“I’m so glad you guys did this, even though I don’t know how I’m going to pay you back, I could never afford something like this!”

Rose and Kanaya looked at each other and then enveloped her into a bear hug, “honey you never ever have to pay us back. This is a gift from us to you for all of your help!”

“Yeah we would be so behind without you sweetie! What kind of people would we be if we didn’t give you something back for all you’ve done?!” Rose asked.

“You guys I do it because you guys do so much. You two are super nice to me and I really appreciate it always, so I help you guys out. You didn’t have to…have to…”

Tears started to roll down her cheeks as she looked at herself in the mirror. She had never seen anything so beautiful in real life unless it was behind a plate glass window. 

“Don’t cry sweetie, here, Calliope made this especially for you,” Rose said as she handed a box. 

Nepeta opened it to reveal the one thing she had been wondering about, her mask. Her mask was storybook Venetian style, modeled after the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland. Light blue netting comprises the base, with darker blue, thicker, lace overlapping it. It sweeps up beyond her eyes to two wide, concaved ears atop her head. Around the eyes, green glitter sparkled in the lights, that would bring out her lovely eyes.

She couldn’t believe it was really her in the mirror. How could she have possibly transformed from a simple teenage girl to a princess in a matter of minutes. Not even her wildest dreams had been able to prepare her for the reality of this. As she took it off she thought to herself, ‘Eridan will probably be very surprised, I bet he doesn’t think I have something this beautiful’. When she came out again Rose was adjusting the hem of Kanaya’s costume gown.

She was clothed in deep, deep green velvet, hugging her from the neckline down to her calves, where it flared out into a mermaid skirt with black lace edging around the bottom. The neckline was a V neck, going into two off-the-shoulder straps that were the same velvet color. Her arms were encased in a green silk, starting at her upper arms and ending at her knuckles, exposing her fingers. Around her neck is a black velvet choker, with a ruby red pendant that caught the light as she moved off her pale skin. Her drop earrings echoed the necklace, all twining black metal and red gems. Her hair was knotted up in ringlet curls, set with pearl pins.

Resting on her face was a mask modeled after Victorian nightwear. It was made of blackest black, with intricate, swirling embroidery flowing out from around the eyes in a metallic silver thread. Around the edge there was black lace flaring out of the upper corners, recalling the dress' edge. Nestled beside the tear ducts are two blood-red gems, only 1/4 of an inch wide, yet juxtaposing her forest green eyes. The mask frames her face, not hiding it. The look is only set apart with the deep red lipstick on her mouth.

“Wow Kanaya you’re so beautiful!” Nepeta exclaimed, “I love it it’s so perfect for you!”

“Thank you sweet heart Rose made it for me as a surprise. She’s been working on it all summer long and like you this is the first time I’ve seen it,” she reached down and tilted Rose’s head up to look at her, “she has done a fabulous job if I might add.”

“All in a day’s work my dear,” Rose responded standing up, “all in a day’s work.”

 

7.2) The Day of the Dance (Preparation)

Nepeta had spent the day at Calliope’s house getting ready for the dance. Calliope had done her hair and make-up. When she’d asked if she could keep her hat on Callie had snapped at her and told her it wouldn’t look okay with something as beautiful as her dress. She promised that she would look great without it because she was straightening and then curling her hair. 

“Eridan won’t know what hit him when he sees you,” Calliope crowed, “I think this is my best achievement yet you look like a goddess or something I’m going to cry! Just look at how beautiful you are and you aren’t even in your gown and mask and stuff yet!”  
Nepeta looked in the mirror, Calliope had used liquid eyeliner around her eyes and up towards her temples in swirls, and then added green and violet glitter. Her lips were painted a deep blue to match her gown and she had a costume emerald, sapphire, and garnet choker around her throat and sapphire studs in her ears. She was in her slip still so she wouldn’t get make up on the precious piece of clothing. Her eyelids were a swirl of gold, green, and blue. She gave Calliope a look and said, “if I’m going to be wearing a mask why did you go through all this trouble of putting on the make up?”

“Because you won’t be wearing it the whole night that’s why, half way through the night we take off our masks and let our dates see our faces. Didn’t you pay attention at the assembly at all?”

“No I wasn’t actually I was talking to Terezi about some things that were really important after Fef finished her deal. And besides, I didn’t know I was even going to go until just the other week, nobody had asked me and I couldn’t afford to buy the ticket myself, and if Kanaya and Rose hadn’t made this costume for me I wouldn’t have anything to wear either. I feel like all of them get together and plan these things behind my back or something when I’m not looking or something. It makes me feel really weird.”

“No they aren’t planning anything behind your back. You just have really good friends in all of us. We’re here for you and we love you because you’re so amazing! Why else would we work so hard to make you happy? You always bring a smile to our faces and you can always tell when something is wrong when we’re down. You are a one of a kind girl, and any guy would be lucky to have you as his girlfriend and we’re all so very happy to have you as our friend!”

Calliope dusted a little bit of gold powdery glitter onto her chest and then gave her a hug. She smiled at Nepeta and then poked her cheek, “we need to get dressed before our dates get here! I planned for mine to get here later so I could get pictures of you and Eri when he gets here. Now then, let’s get you dressed!” 

Calliope took Nepeta by the hand and pulled her over to where their dresses were waiting for them. Calliope’s was a green two- piece gown that had a top like a tuxedo with coattails. The skirt was knee length and a darker shade of green. Black lace peeped out from below it and she smiled at Nepeta, “my mask is like a skull! It’s a similar shade of green as the skirt part and it’s so scary looking!”

“I bet you’ll be the scariest girl there,” Nepeta said as she spied the mask in question. Calliope’s hair was curled and then made messy with a black head band keeping it back from her face. She lifted the top off the hanger and set it down on the stool she’d abandoned and grabbed up the dress. Underneath the tux jacket the skirt was actually a strapless dress with a bejeweled skull on the bust.

“If I ever get too hot from the jacket I can take it off and just wear the dress. I was too lazy to actually make the crazy design I was originally going to make and settled on this. Besides, I’m only going with Caliborn as a request from Dirk and Jake. They wanted us to match and I’m surprised he agreed.”

“Your date is Caliborn?”

“Yeah he didn’t want to go but the boys got him to by bribing him with getting him out of Hussie’s detention for putting graffiti all over the boys’ water closet. They told Mr. Hussie they would have him clean it up instead of detention and then had a maid do it so he was indebted to them,” she explained as she shrugged, “I think it was a brilliant idea honestly because I think it brought him out of his shell. He’s started learning how to entertain like the others from Jake and Dirk. Besides he’s handsome and he should use his talents for things other than destructive impulses. I even saw him smile the other day.”

She looked down at the jacket and smiled again, “just thinking that he might make our dad proud soon makes me so excited. Caliborn has always been sad and mean because he thinks dad doesn’t love him but he really does. He does more than anybody can believe. I mean, what kind of man doesn’t love his only son?”

There was a knock on the door and Caliborn stuck his head inside and asked, “Sis how do I tie this bowtie on? It keeps coming up crooked, stupid thing.” 

“Come here and I’ll fix it, since I have one too I know how it feels to have it not work for you, but I thought the girls gave you a clip on tie.”

“They did,” he muttered as he picked his way over to the two girls, “but I lost the stupid thing so I had to borrow one of dads, he got all annoyed and lectured me for about an hour it was so annoying.”

“Callo, he does that because he loves you. You shouldn’t have lost that because the girls worked very hard on it for you. I know you don’t like to be social and I know you hate everybody but…people want to get to know you and be your friend,” Calliope’s hands shook as she properly tied the bowtie around his neck, “it’s just that you have to let them in that’s all…you have to let people get close, you say you want to make friends but you push everybody away that try. That is the one thing that stops them. Tonight you have to try to be nice; the boys did you a wonderful favor getting you out of a month’s detention so you had best do your darndest to repay their kindness. There, it’s tied.”

Caliborn muttered his thanks and walked away with a hung head. When Calliope turned back to Nepeta she looked like she was going to cry, “he just needs to understand that we love him that’s all,” she said as she shrugged on the jacket and her own sparkly red bowtie, “I don’t know…get dressed silly Eri will be here soon!”

In a flurry of excitement and fabric Nepeta and Calliope were finally dressed. Calliope put on her green skull half mask and smiled with her green lipstick. Her eyes glittered from underneath the mask in a spray of green and silver glitter. The two girls walked down the stairs and met Caliborn at the bottom of the stairs. He mock bowed to them and then smirked, “shall we ‘ladies’? There’s a limo outside waiting for somebody.”

“Nepeta he’s here he’s here!” Calliope squealed as she jumped up and down, “He’s here OMG I can’t wait to see his face quick Caliborn let’s open the doors for him when he knocks ready?!”

She pushed her reluctant brother over towards the front doors and left Nepeta standing in front of the wide staircase, “Callie no what are you-”

There was a knock and the twins threw the doors open to reveal a bedecked Eridan. He let out a small gasp and she could see his eyes widen underneath his own mask. Then he smiled and took her hand, “you look absolutely ravishing. The picture of a princess, I am so honored to be your prince tonight.”

“Oh Eridan that’s so sweet!” Calliope cooed.

“Callie, our limo is here too. Let’s get going while the goings good,” Caliborn held his arm out for his sister.

“Yes Princess, let’s go,” Eridan smiled and Nepeta took his elbow, “I’ll be sure to make this the best night of your year so far.”

Nepeta looked up at him, “I know you will Eri, you promised before.”

“You called me Eri, I like that. Well let’s get this night going!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I could draw so I could have art within this story. Sometimes it just seems like the things in it would look so nice.


	8. Chapter 8

When the black, sleek limo pulled up to the curb and pulled to a halt, the door opened with a flourish. Eridan stepped out, looking like an absolute prince, and his actions spoke to that notion as well when he held out a bejeweled hand to his lovely princess of the evening, and helped Nepeta out of her seat. She stepped out delicately, and with the grace of royalty. Eridan held out his arm to her and she took it, holding up her flowing skirt with the other hand. Together, they made their way into the building, where all heads turned as they passed. Cameras flashed and there was a collective sigh from the ladies as they saw what a lovely couple the two made. The main photographer of the dance stopped them in front of a back arch and positioned them for a photograph, “if this doesn’t end up in the newspaper I don’t know what will,” he said as he took the shot.

When they finally made it all the way inside Nepeta turned to look up at Eridan, “can we wait for Calliope? They were right behind us in their limo.”

“Of course my lady, look,” he nodded out the door, “you can see them from here.”

The next limo pulled up and the door opened to a fine young man. A scowl on his face, and the door in his hand, he helped his sister out, a mask and smirk on her face. When she stepped out, she strutted, and stuck her arm out to her brother. He took her arm as his scowl morphed into a smirk to match hers. Quite the pair with personality, they made their way along the walk in. The heads that turned to watch the royal pair, snapped back around to the dark and lovely siblings. The glitter on Calliope absorbed the light and shot it back around, giving the effect that her throat was glowing. They looked frightful in the best way with the skull masks, and they were a perfect match. People smiled and applauded as Caliborn gave her a mock bow at the door. Dirk and Jake met them after the photo booth and took Caliborn over to the refreshments table. Callie came up to Nepeta and Eridan with a grin.

“I sure am glad everybody thought he looked dapper,” she smiled as several girls jostled for his attention at the table, “it will be a jolly good thing when he gets some friends.”

“Let’s go find our friends,” Nepeta offered, “Caliborn’s coming back now anyways.”  
When the two couples walked in, they saw their friends over in a cluster. Near the front was Vriska, looking like a high seas princess. Her dress was of black with blue lines crossing and swirling across the surface. It came down to her mid-thigh in the front, and her ankles in the back. She had black silk tights on, and over the knee heeled boots, with buckles covering every surface. Her long unruly hair was covered with a hat, reminiscent of pirates, with a blue plume coming out of the black material. Her mask was pure black, and had the pattern of a treasure map in royal blue swirling across it, one eye covered with a royal blue silk eye patch.  
Before they could reach the group however, the music began to play. And some broke off to drift towards the dance floor.

Tavros was standing beside Vriska, the center of her attention tonight. He was dressed in a black tux, complete with a black bow tie and black silk vest. He wore a long black cape, lined with red silk on the inside. His hair was styled just right, and his mask was the key to the lock of his costume. Only covering half his face, it was a dubiously simple white piece, not a sparkly thing, but shimmering in the dance lights. The final piece of his outfit was the single red rose in his lapel. Once the music started, he filled with courage. He took Vriska's hand, and spun her once before leading her to the dance floor, all but sweeping her off her feet. He kneeled on one knee, and presented her with a matching red rose from a hidden pocket.

When the rose was presented to Vriska, she gasped and brought a hand up to her mouth. Nobody had ever looked past how she, well, looked. When she brought her hand away, it revealed the most beautiful and meaningful smile Tavros had ever seen. She leaned down and took the rose in one hand, and Tavros' hand in the other, helping him rise up. She placed the rose in her lapel, where the color was rich against the black and blue. Still holding his hand, she wrapped the other around his neck as he took her around the waist, and led her in the first song of the evening, where they moved in sync with both each other and the music.

Everybody smiled and sighed as they whirled around the dance floor in a waltz. The Beta Kids’ instruments sighed and sang beautiful rhythms that people were slowly making their way to the dance floor to. Feferi was near the middle of their little group, watching Tavros and Vriska. She wore a floor length blue dress, the color of the sea, which flared out at the knee, mermaid style, in a fluff of tulle and satin. Embroidered from the bottom and fading up were iridescent green scales, made of metallic thread. The sweetheart neckline was edged with the same scales. Her hair was down and curly, filled with pins tipped with pearls, and woven through with seaweed colored ribbons. The same ribbon was wrapped around her waist and wrists, pearls and seashells dangling off the ends. Her mask was half face style. The base was a matte green, painted over with a clear gloss and waves outlined in glitter. Tiny conch shells outlined the beautiful adornment. Altogether, Feferi looked like a mermaid from Atlantis.

Sollux was wearing a black tux, yet from a different era. Kanaya designed it from a time of shirttails and buggies. The jacket was of the tailed variety, each section lined with blue silk on the left and red silk on the right. Matching the tails, the lapels were of the same discretion. His shirt was a plain grey, and his tie black. The main event of his outfit was his flower, which was a rose, yet it was comprised of tiny circuit boards and wires, which alternated from glowing blue to red seamlessly. His mask was held in place with computer cords, and was a matte grey. The surface of it was decorated in parallel and overlapping lines of wires and led lights, which glowed as well. Around the eye holes were the largest wires, one always glowing blue and the other red. He reached out a hand to his ocean colored enchantress and lead her onto the dance floor, leading her into the dancing crowd seamlessly.

Eridan swept Nepeta into a dance at the climax of the music. He twirled her around and around and then drew her close as the song ended. He put his cheek on the top of her head and sighed. What was this emotion he was feeling? Everybody always told him he was a player, but he thought he’d never found the right girl. He put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his.

“I think,” he took a breath before continuing, “I think I really, really like you Nepeta Leijon. Somehow you’ve gotten yourself deep into my heart like no other girl has ever been able to before.”

She looked him in the eyes and then smiled. He could feel his heart flutter in his chest as he lowered his lips to her smile. He couldn’t believe he was kissing her again. He worried for a moment that she’d push him away, but then he felt her arms snake up and wrap around the back of his neck. He smiled against her lips and pulled away to look at her again. She was still grinning ear to ear and blushing. He grinned himself and swirled her back into the dancing.

Aradia stood watching as the couple disappeared and let out a heavy sigh. She turned to look at Equius who hadn’t seen. He’d liked Nepeta a little bit but he’d asked her to the dance instead. Using his hair like a mane, his mask was like a blunt horse snout with pointed ears. His tuxedo was a deep shade of blue with hints of silver painted on it. He held a bow in one hand and had a quiver full of suction cup arrows on his back. His gloves were painted in a way that made them look like they were made of iron. He cut an impressive figure for someone who had specifically asked for ‘simple’. She grinned at him and play punched him in the arm. He turned to look at her with his own crooked grin.

“Are you going to dance with me before the band gets off the stage or not? I would like at least one waltz with you,” She scolded and crossed her arms. She cocked an eyebrow at him; instead of wearing a mask she had painted her face as a geisha. She wore a short sleeved ruby red kimono that glittered as she moved. Her hair was up in golden chopstick like combs that had red, black, silver, and golden beads strung in between them. She smiled and grabbed Equius’s hand before he could say anything contrary and lead him into a dance. 

Eventually everybody was dancing and laughing and having a good time. Tavros had just kissed Vriska for the first time, and he felt like he would never again feel low and self-conscious. The moment had been caught on camera by the dance photographer and would probably end up in the yearbook. The Beta Kids finished up their set and the DJ took over for them so they could have fun and dance too. During the break in music a majority of the party goers went to the outside tables for refreshments and to sit down and relax. The real party hadn’t started yet. Before the DJ would begin dropping his beats, the candidates for the most beautiful couple would be announced. Once that was done there was a short period of time for everybody to put in their votes as the night wore on, finally, before the last dance, the top two beautiful couples would be announced. They would lead everybody in the masks off slow dance, and then the night would be over.

“Nepeta! You look absolutely stunning!” Aradia enthused when she met her in the girls’ room, “just look at you! It’s hard to believe you’re still only a freshman! And to think Ampora beat me out and won despite my advice.”

“I’m sorry Aradia, are you angry at me about all of that?” Nepeta asked sheepishly, “I mean he seems like he sincerely likes me, and I want to give him a chance if he is, because I guess I like him too.” 

Aradia pulled her into a hug, “I’m not mad at you at all silly! I’m actually very happy for you. You’re living every girls dream, to get the friends, the guy, everything! You deserve it all, because of how big a heart you have!”

“Nepeta Leijon!” A voice shouted from the door. Both girls jumped and turned towards the sound and saw Vriska leaning against the wall with a hand on her hip.

“Vriska, why are you yelling at me?” Nepeta asked with confusion, “Did I do something wrong?”

And then she was being hugged tightly, “No! You did the best thing ever! You get him to finally ask me out, to be his girlfriend, something I’ve been waiting for for a very long time. Kanaya told me you were the one that gave him that pep talk on the first day of school; I want to thank you for that. He’s always been so down on himself since we were little kids, I thought he would never ask, and after all these years…”

Vriska paused and smiled; she turned and looked into the mirror, “that’s why I always kept all those idiot losers around me. So that maybe he would notice and get jealous and stand up for himself. He never did so I thought maybe he didn’t like me like I thought he did. This is a dream come true, thank you Nepeta; I plan on being your friend from now on!”

Vriska walked back out of the girls’ room and called Tav’s name out. Nepeta turned back to Aradia and beamed, “I’m nominating them as most beautiful couple,” she decided out loud.

“I think they’ll have my vote if you don’t get nominated,” Aradia agreed. “I wonder how much longer until…”

They heard the announcer’s voice come over the mic, “Attention everybody, the booths for nominations are now set up, please form orderly lines and cast your votes within the selected time frame. The DJ will begin playing music for those of you that do not wish to partake in the voting process. Thank you.”

“There’s my answer,” Aradia said, giving Nepeta a thumbs up, “I’ll see you later okay?” 

Nepeta walked over to an empty booth and signed Vriska and Tavros’s names on it and put it in the box for the tallies. Several girls were looking at her and writing swiftly on their papers. Nepeta didn’t want to win, she’d be so embarrassed. She sat down at a table and thought about it for a minute as the beats of music swirled towards her ears on the night air.  
Maybe she would be happy if they won. She decided that if they did, she would be happy for Eridan, and then she remembered that there were two most beautiful couples to be chosen tonight. Maybe Vriska and Tav would be one and they would be the other. She was brought out of her day dream by somebody pulling a glass of punch in front of her nose. She looked up to find Eridan himself pulling up a chair to sit with her.

“I voted for Vriska and Tavros. I’m pretty proud of the little guy; he’s had a crush on Vris for as long as I can remember. We’ve all gone to the same schools forever, and I think she always had a thing for him too,” he gave her a look, “I noticed that she followed you into the restroom earlier, what was that all about?”

“Girl stuff,” she answered vaguely. She picked up the glass and took a sip and then drank more; it was really good punch, like the real stuff.

Eridan rubbed his finger around the rim of his glass and then looked up, “C’mon Nep, let’s go dance again. It’s kind of cold out here don’t you think?”

She nodded and took is offered hand. As they walked back she hugged his arm and put her head on his upper arm. She could hear him humming to himself and she grinned. She never knew just being with somebody could make them so happy.

When they hit the dance floor the rest of the night was a blur. She saw all of her friends dancing in pairs. Kanaya and Rose, Jade and   
Dave, Jake and Dirk, Sollux and Feferi, Aradia and Equius, Caliborn was trying his best to keep up with Calliope’s energetic dancing and he looked like he was having a good time, she saw Tavros and Vriska dancing to their own rhythm, and Terezi was dancing with a guy she hadn’t met yet. Jane and Roxy were dancing with John and laughing as he acted like he didn’t know how to, a tall guy with a mop of black hair dressed like a dark clown was hopping from group to group and dancing wildly. 

Before she knew it had gotten so late the music began to slow and quiet down. Nepeta lifted her head up from where it had been resting on Eridan’s chest. Everybody was looking up at the stage towards where Feferi was walking up hand in hand with Sollux. She beamed at the crowd and waved two dark purple envelopes in the air. The crowd cheered and applauded as she tapped the mic for silence.

“That’s right everybody! It’s that time of the night for your votes have been tallied and the results are in! My dear Sollux and I will read out the names of this year’s most beautiful couples! Sollux, would you do the honor of calling out the first couple?”

“I thure will Fef, you’ll have to excuthe my lithp everybody, I’ll do the betht I can!”  
He opened up the envelope she handed him and read it for a moment. It glowed from the lights on his mask and he looked up.

“A truly beautiful new couple if I’ve ever theen one. The firtht motht beautiful couple ith…”  
He paused again for effect; everybody leaned in to hear what he was going to say next.

“TAVROTH AND VRITHKA!” he almost yelled into the microphone. Everybody went crazy cheering and applauding as the couple was shown onto the stage. Tavros had a look of pride and surprise on his face and Vriska was beaming. She looked like she might cry as they handed her and Tavros both a single white rose. She grabbed him by the lapels and kissed him right there on stage and everybody went nuts again. Feferi grinned at them and Sollux planted a kiss of his own on her cheek. She cleared her throat into the mic and waved the second envelope in the air. Everybody grew silent again almost immediately.

“And now for the second most beautiful couple here tonight, I’m sure I have personally never seen a girl look more like royalty beside a guy than the royalty themselves. I was near the door when these two walked in and I swear, I thought we were suddenly by the ocean the way the sighs were so loud,” she opened up the envelope and smiled again, “I know that this is also a fairly new couple, I’ve been there to see their progress and it’s been the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I always knew from the first day of school until just a few weeks ago that they would be together. It is my pleasure, to award the second most beautiful couple award to…”

Once again there was total silence in the room. Nepeta looked up and saw Feferi looking at Eridan as she opened her mouth to finally speak.

“ERIDAN AMPORA AND NEPETA LEIJON!”

The silence was deafening. All eyes turned towards them as the two stood ramrod straight and still. Then, like a tidal wave of sound, the crowd roared its approval as they made their way up to the stage. Feferi grinned as she handed Nepeta her rose, “good luck taming this one,” she whispered before handing off Eridan’s rose to him. The four people awarded most beautiful couple stood at the front of the stage and bowed. Then they removed their masks and sent them down on the table set up for them. Everybody on the dance floor was doing the same, Dave raced up the stairs and grabbed the mic to make an announcement, “Hey everybody! This is a very special song the four of us worked on all summer for this night. It’s called Alternia, and I dedicate it to these lovely folks right here,” he bounded back off the stage to where Jade was waiting for him on the outskirts of the floor. First Tavros and Vriska, and then Eridan and Nepeta made their way to the center of the dance floor. As the music started to wash over them, they began to dance slowly. One by one couples all around them began to dance too, until finally everybody was dancing slowly under the slow pulsing lights.

Eridan held Nepeta close to him as they circled round and round. He whispered into her ear, “I think I’m in love with you, Nepeta Leijon.”

He could feel her smile against his chest and he heard her say, “I think I’m in love with you too.”


	9. Chapter 9

The fall had passed by slowly into the winter months. Snow had started falling early in November and Homecoming had been moved to an indoor venue because of the snow. Everybody had been dressed in 1930’s red carpet garb, the theme being Old Fashion Movie. All of the decorations had been red, white, black, grey, and silver; the colors of the gowns and tuxedos of the party goers clashing wonderfully with the backdrop. Nepeta had gone with Eridan again, and they were fawned over by a vast majority of the other party goers. Nepeta had been in a sleeveless floor length silver gown with grey waves of fluttering fabric at the bottom. She’d worn a white faux fur wrap to keep her warm, and her hair had been done up in 30’s fashion. Eridan had decided to go with a white tuxedo with a violet silk under shirt. He had taken to simplicity to allow Nepeta to shine even brighter than ever. It had gone well, Kanaya and Rose had closed shop for the dance so everybody except Nepeta and Calliope had to buy their dresses and tuxes. 

Nepeta hadn’t dated anybody before, so she always felt a little nervous going out on dates with Eridan because she worried she’d make him look bad. He would always assure her that she could never embarrass him in any way. He was truly the gentleman, and he tried his best to make everything the best it could be. 

As winter break crept closer and closer onto the horizon, the kids of Alternia Academy began to make plans for trips and vacations. The group was all together at a table in the cafeteria after school with Terezi dragging two new people Nepeta hadn’t met yet up to meet them. The one she was dragging by the hand had a big black sweater on, and was just barely taller than she was. He had a look of annoyance on his face that would scare off a thunder storm. He brushed a lock of his brown hair out of his eyes as he plopped down at the table next to her.

“Hey guys, I know some of you already know him but I want you to meet my guy Karkat,” Terezi beamed and put an arm around his shoulder, “I’d also like you to meet the star batter/pitcher on our school’s team Gamzee! He’s so tall huh?”

The guy in question sat down and gave everybody a half grin from under heavy lidded eyes, “Sup.”

Nepeta grinned at the two new guys, “hi nice to meet you both! My names Nepeta and I’m sure I’m the only one that hasn’t met you guys yet!”

Karkat turned his head towards her and narrowed his eyes, “oh hey, you’re Ampora’s latest toy right? I’m excited to see how long this lasts,” he turned his back on them and resumed staring at the ground.

“Vantas that was completely uncalled for!” Eridan yelled, “I really love her, so shut your damn mouth before I make you!”

“You guys,” Feferi scolded, “this is not the time for your petty fights. We’re all together today to plan the cabin trip right? So let’s get it together and plan it like civilized human beings. Now then, my family has a large cabin up in the mountains that I’ve gotten permission to use for the first week of break. It has like, twenty rooms or something so there’s plenty of room for everybody to sleep alone or bunk up,” with this she looked side long at Sollux, “I’m going to have a party bus pick us all up an hour after the last day of school so everybody needs to be here and be ready by that time! Otherwise, you can get your own butts up there. So, by show of hands, who’s going?”

Aradia, Equius, Sollux, Terezi, Gamzee, Vriska, Tavros, Kanaya, Eridan raised his hand that was holding Nepeta’s hand so hers was raised too, and Terezi grabbed Karkat’s hand and waved it in the air. Dirk and Jake raised their hands, Roxy raised Jane’s for her, Dave, Jade, John, and Rose all raised their own hands. Feferi nodded and looked at Calliope, “you and your brother can’t come?” she asked.

“No, daddy planned a surprise ski trip for Caliborn, so we’re going away in a few days! He was so surprised when daddy told us I was happy too, but that means I can’t go to the cabin with you guys.”

“That’s unfortunate Callie! We would’ve loved it if you could come,” Fef came around the table and hugged the   
girl as she stood to leave, “we’ll miss you and we’ll take lots of pictures and keep you updated! And we want tons of pics from your trip too!”

“Alright I’ll do my best, bye everybody!” Calliope picked up her bag and walked away waving, everybody waved back until she went around the corner.

“Okay even without that set of twins all the rooms are loaded unless people bunk up, either way it’s going to be fun and I can’t wait! Now, I have a student council meeting, Aradia, let’s go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow; don’t forget to pack parkas and things guys!”

As the crowd dispersed Eridan took Nepeta’s hand and walked with her.

“Eridan, I don’t own a parka and I don’t have the money to buy one. I don’t really have all the things someone needs to have to survive a mountain trip, even if it is in a cabin.”

“Yo, Terezi,” Eridan called out of nowhere, the girl looked up from Karkat, who’d she had been harassing, “come here for a second will ya?”

Terezi scowled at Karkat and walked over to them, “what do you want?”

“Can you take Nepeta to the mall and get her some winter clothes please? No you hush a minute; you said you needed clothes right? Well Terezi here is going to help you pick some out,” he pulled out his wallet and took out a gold colored credit card, “and I’m going to pay for it. Before you protest, I’ve had this credit card for a long time and I’ve never had a use for it and it’s from my parents. It was a birthday gift and I already have one,” he handed the card over to Terezi, “I want her to have a full on winter wardrobe come Friday got it?”

Terezi gave him a dirty look and then grinned at Nepeta, “We are going to have so much fun, right now!” She clapped gleefully and took Nep’s hand that wasn’t attached to Eridan, “today we go to the mall to go shopping for clothes, then tomorrow we’ll hit that huge sporting goods store to buy more clothes and boots and ski stuff and a sled! We’ll just run him completely dry won’t we?”

“Um, I don’t really want to spend your money Eridan,” Nepeta turned to look up at him with worried eyes, “and from the sound of it she wants to spend major amounts of it.”

He looked at her with a slightly bemused look on his face, “Nepeta, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to spoil yourself. Let’s make a deal, either you go shopping with Terezi today, or,” he paused and gave her a wicked grin, “I’ll call all of the stores she was going to take you to and order a set of everything in your size,” he pulled out his cell phone, “how about it?”

She play pushed him away from her and pouted. She turned to look at Terezi, “you’re okay with just taking me to the mall?” she asked.

“Yeah! This will be a ton of fun! Squandering the cash of the most annoying guy in the whole school? No way am I missing this opportunity!”

She ran back over to the table that Gamzee and Karkat were still sitting at, grabbed her bag, gave Karkat a hug and Gamzee a fist bump, and ran back over to them just as Eridan let Nepeta go from a hug. She grabbed the smaller girl’s hand, “later loser! I hope you weren’t planning on eating for a year, I’m going to buy her every cute thing I see!”

“Oh I have nothing to worry about then do I?”

“Bite me Ampora! Why can’t you be nice to all of us like you are to her?”  
“Just shut up and get a move on Pyrope, and don’t crash your car into something because you can’t see past the hood!” 

She flipped him off as she drug Nepeta around the corner of the building towards her car, “God I’m amazed you can change such a jerk like you do. He’s always been such a jerk wad to all of us. I think you must be some kind of magic because I have no clue how you do it. I haven’t even ever seen him smile so much as he does now. It’s so weird,” she wrinkled her nose as she popped the trunk of her car and tossed her bag in, “set yours in there too,” and then she clicked a button and opened the driver’s door of the car, “it’s unlocked.”

Once she was certain Nepeta was buckled in she took off from the parking lot of the school. She turned on her CD player and sang along to some punk music drifting from the speakers, “this is totally Vriska’s CD, I don’t listen to this stuff normally, she always leaves her junk in my car,” she muttered as she changed the disc to a Gotye album, “much better,” her head rocked back and forth with the music as she drove. When she hit a red light she turned to ask Nepeta a question.

“What made you start dating that guy anyways?”

Nepeta looked at her, breaking her gaze out the window, she blushed and shrugged, “well, I think I liked him since the first day of school. I’ve never met anybody that’s kissed my hand before. Then when he kissed me at the pizza place, I felt weird and confused but he’s really nice. He’d text me good morning and good night when he got my number, and when he asked me to the Halloween dance I guess I decided that if he asked me to be his girlfriend I would say yes. So when he,” she paused and blushed darker, “when he said that he loved me I couldn’t believe it! I’m just a freshman, I’m not a spectacular babe or something like Vriska or Kanaya or even you Terezi! I think it’s so weird that he dotes on me like he does. Was he really as bad as you guys always make him out to be?”

“He’s always had a sour disposition. Ever since we were all little kids in the same private preschool he’s been separate from everybody. It wasn’t until Dirk and Jake made him start that host club with them that he’s come out of that shell he called a personality and started smiling a little. But then come their sophomore year he developed a habit of dating and dumping girls. So he became known as a womanizer. That is why Aradia was so against him being near you, and once she has a cause she doesn’t let it go. Anyways, that time at the pizza place, even though I acted really calm I was seriously upset at him, I didn’t want him to hurt you because you are a very kind girl,” they came to another red light and Rezi turned to smile at her, “I’m still on the fence about this though, but I can’t be too focused on what Ampora does, because I’m in my own relationship now.”

Nepeta nodded, “with that crabby guy right? Karkat? Why was he so mean to me about dating Eridan?”

“Eridan used to pick on him ruthlessly when they were kids. More than all the other kids he picked on. It was almost like he had a personal vendetta against Karkat, because of family status maybe. Karkat is on the lower tier of the family status bar that’s been attending Alternia private schools all this time. Eridan is second only to Feferi when it comes to family money and power. If I’m not mistaken, this is your first year in an Alternia school because you’re a scholarship student right?”

“Yeah, I had really good grades in junior high and they entered me in a raffle with several other kids and I won a full scholarship to attend school here all four years. It was a really great feeling because my parents try so hard, but my mom is really sick and my dad can’t work and take care of her at the same time. It looked like I’d end up dropping out of school to take care of her. When I won that raffle my father got another job so he could hire help to take care of my mom so I could stay in school. I try to hide this, Terezi; please don’t tell anybody what I told you.”

They pulled into the parking lot of the mall and Terezi parked the car near the front of a side store. She took off her seat belt and put her arm around the other girl, “I won’t tell anybody a thing. You have the right to explain these things to everybody when you want to. But for now, we have some shopping to do!”

Nepeta gave her a watery grin as they walked across the frozen blacktop to the warmly lit mall. Even on a Tuesday the place was bustling with teens, moms, couples, and families going about their business. Nepeta had never been to this one, and when she took in the designer name store fronts, the crystal chandeliers, the marble floors, and the gourmet restaurants she figured it was a high end one. She was about to scowl at Terezi and tell her to take her to the normal mall when she was suddenly being hugged from both sides.

“She’s here, I told you she would be,” a very familiar voice said on her left side.

“Well you did not know they would be arriving at this particular mall now did you?” A second distinct voice said from her right.

Terezi turned around from the touch screen directory to find the unfolding scene behind her. Her eyebrows shot up when she took in who it was that was smothering the much smaller girl, “hey girls, I didn’t know you were going to be here today, I thought you had some work to do for the theatre department.

Rose shook her head, not letting go, “we finished that yesterday. When I heard something about money, and a shopping trip I had to come.”

“Naturally I would come with her. Nepeta here is our special little doll. We do adore dressing up our two little dolls, and since the other one is not going on this trip we have the greatest desire to help you select her wardrobe for the occasion,” Kanaya was the first to release Nepeta from their collective bear hug, “plus, I will never pass up the chance to spend a man’s money.”

“Alright! My older cousin would so love you Kan! She thinks doing this kind of stuff is rad, anyways, I think we should start at that one little coat shop and get her a few choice coats…”

The group moved down the wide walkway towards the coat shop in question. Kanaya was explaining that if they had had the time she would have made Nepeta her wardrobe, but with all of the orders for dances and Tavros’s plays they hadn’t had spare time. When they got to the shop a young woman with glasses smiled and helped them choose three coats, a naturally colored suede with kid skin lining and furred hems and sleeves, and dark green sweater with black trim, and a thin but extremely warm parka like coat that was all white. The woman handed Kanaya her measuring tape; she could tell a fellow designer when she saw one, and allowed her to assist in the pinning for the coats and sweater to be taken in. the woman assured them the coats would be finished in an hour or so, and Terezi used the card to pay.

The next shop they hit was Kanaya’s choice. It was a seasonal store that sold clothing exclusively during the winter. She moved along the racks, picking up several articles and then putting them back. She pulled up a long sleeve dress that went to the knee and was black and pine green. Rose pulled up a pair of long john tights in a dark grey and she nodded to her. They handed the outfit to Nepeta and she tried it on. The dress fit perfectly, and the tights warmed her legs up a lot. She changed back into her uniform and came out to find several pairs of pants in different styles and a few long sleeved shirts in different colors being shoved into her arms. As she tried on different combinations of shirt and pants for the three girls she could hear them talking. They talked about where to go next mostly, and she heard the names of several pricey sounding shops being thrown around. She sighed as she wondered what her dad would say when she came home loaded down with bags and boxes of clothes. She decided when all was said and done she would buy her parents a little something from one of these places.

Once she’d finished trying on the huge pile Kanaya had given her, and the rejects were handed off to an employee, they walked to the register and paid for everything. Now loaded down with bags, the four girls made their way to Rose’s favorite shoe store.

“They have the best deals on the prettiest things,” she enthused, “they also sell the cutest accessories too, so we should cash in on some cute earmuffs and gloves and mittens while we’re at it.”

“I need a new pair of mittens,” Terezi muttered, “If they have a cute red pair I’m totally buying them. And don’t worry Nep; I’ll use my own money.”

They laughed at this as they walked into the shoe store. They went straight to the area with hiking boots and picked a cute pair, then they wandered over to where the suede boots were, picked three pairs, and moved on to the accessories. Nepeta picked a pair of olive green fingerless gloves that could change into mittens, and then a black pair of regular mittens. She was looking around to see if there was anything else when she spotted them; a pair of blue cat slippers. She grabbed her hat off of her head and compared the color; it was a perfect match! She looked to see if there was another pair, and she felt heaviness in her heart when she didn’t see another. She picked them up gingerly and looked for a size. There was a little sticker in the top of the left one. 

She looked at it, and they were her size! She jumped up and down and let out a small cheer. She even had a blue night gown at home these would look great with. She skipped back over to where the other three girls where standing and talking about mittens, a rack of which were right in front of them.

“Look Nep, I found a pair in my favorite colors!” Terezi showed off a pair of mittens that were a mix of teal and red. Rose grinned and held up two pairs of mittens, one light purple and the other black and grey. Kanaya had a pair that was jade and black.

They all got in line to check out and Nepeta handed Terezi the boots, but held onto the mittens and the slippers.

“What’s up Nep? I can’t get them scanned if you don’t give them to me,” Terezi cocked an eyebrow at her.

“I’m going to pay for this stuff, it’s not too much, and I don’t want to be indebted to Eridan forever,” she chuckled.

“Oh alright, have it your way, I’m not going to beat you up for it or anything, though I think he’s gonna throw a fit over it.”

Nepeta shrugged as she put her purchases on the counter. The guy rang her up and she paid, then Terezi paid for both hers and Nepeta’s stuff, and Kanaya and Rose paid for theirs together. Before they moved on to another store they walked back to Terezi’s car and dropped off all of their stuff. They went back inside and sat down at a Starbucks to wait for the coats to finish up and to discuss where to go next.

“I think we should head over to the lingerie store,” Terezi winked, “you heard Feferi, we can bunk up with whoever we want.”

Nepeta choked on her hot cocoa and Terezi snorted with laughter. Kanaya shot Rezi a look and then sighed and shook her head. Rose rolled her eyes and patted Nep on the back to help her breath again.

“Do not say something like that Terezi. What are you going to do? Bunk with Karkat?” Kanaya asked pointedly.  
Terezi blushed all the way to her ears and brushed her auburn hair back behind her shoulder. She took a sip of her latté and scowled at Kanaya from the rim of the cup. Then she shook her head and rolled her own eyes, “of course I wasn’t! I hardly got him to admit he liked me, and even more recently convinced him to be my boyfriend. I’m not like that Kan,” she took another draw from her drink and then looked between the two girls, 

“Aren’t you two going to room together?”

“We don’t know yet, there are enough rooms for us to have our own rooms if we wanted to,” Rose said as Kanaya simply said, “I hope so.”

They looked at each other and then shrugged I unison. Nepeta was staring at the ceiling still, they guessed in shock.

“Come on guys, let’s finish these on the way to the next store, we’re going to get some underclothes, like long johns and things,” Terezi clarified when Nepeta shot her a warning look.

They made their way to the last store of the day, in search for warm underclothes. The trip didn’t take long; Kanaya swiftly picked the warmest and nicest looking articles she could find for each individual girl. They each walked out with four sets of underclothes, and then they went to grab some ice cream.

“Ice cream in the winter is the best,” Rose said as she bit into her chocolate covered bar. Kanaya had gotten a rainbow sherbet, Terezi had opted for a red candied apple, and Nepeta had picked a mint chocolate chip scoop on a cone. The girls sat down and enjoyed their treats on a couch. They chatted about the trip and school until Nepeta yawned broadly and said she needed to be getting home. They stopped on their way to Terezi’s car at the coat shop to grab the tailored garments. They ran to the car through the snow and Rezi gave Kan and Rose a ride to Kan’s car. They said their good byes and took off. 

Terezi eased out into traffic and grinned, “Tell me that wasn’t so bad Nepeta! I think you had fun, plus with Kanaya and Rose there it made it so much easier, oh yeah, there’s a surprise they got you before we got there I guess. It’s in a box in the trunk. They wouldn’t tell me what it was so don’t think of pestering me until I tell you. Anyways, you live over here off of third right?”

Nepeta nodded and pointed to the left of them to a side street. She was secretly glad for the snow covering everything so Terezi wouldn’t see the state of disrepair everything was in. she let out a sigh when they turned onto her street and whispered, “The one on the end.”

Terezi pulled up to the curb and unbuckled her seat belt, “let’s go Nep, you look like you’re going to fall asleep right where you sit.”

They both walked to the back of the car and Terezi popped the trunk open. They each grabbed as many bags as they could, Nepeta keeping one hand open with her keys. They walked up the short walk through the snow and came to the door. Nepeta unlocked it and turned towards Terezi, “I apologize about the weird smell; it’s the medicine and the cleaners we use to keep the house safe for my mom.”

She opened the door and walked inside, taking a left and walking down a short hallway and opened up her bedroom door. She flicked on the light and grinned at her room. The walls were a medium olive green, and white cats ran around the walls. A real cat, also white, slept on the bed. She woke her up and kissed her head,   
“that’s Pounce, she’s my best friend.”

“Hello Pounce,” Terezi giggled, “where do you want me to put all this stuff?”

Nepeta yawned again, she looked at the clock and gaped, it was past nine, “put them on the floor by the closet, I’m just going to pack it all into my suit case tomorrow after school I guess.”

“No you’re not,” Terezi shook a finger at her, “we aren’t done yet remember? I’m just going to get you a sled or something. I’ll probably be too tired to do any serious shopping too,” she stretched up and arched her back, and then turned to walk back out of the room. The two girls grabbed the last of the loot and took it to Nepeta’s room.

Terezi gave her a quick hug before saying good night and heading out the door. Nepeta stood and watched her drive off before shutting the door with a smile.

Somehow she would teach herself how to get used to the ways of the rich. She still had it in mind to buy her parents some things tomorrow. She crept down the right hallway and peaked into her parents’ room. The dim glow of the monitors lit her mom’s face slightly. Her dad had fallen asleep in the rolling chair next to the bed again. She shut the door and slunk into the kitchen and checked the fridge, grabbing some chicken nuggets to eat cold she went to the bathroom and ate them, washed her face, brushed her teeth and hair, and changed into pajamas.

She stole back into her room and grimaced at the huge pile of new stuff taking up so much space. She curled up under her covers and smiled as Pounce rubbed her face. The cat curled up next to her and she closed her eyes.

“Night Pounce, night mom and dad, night Eridan, Terezi, Kanaya, Rose. Thanks for being there for me.”

And she slid into sleep.


	10. Buses and Karaoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The start of the winter break edition! I hope you all enjoy their antics, I'm bad at summaries sorry.

Friday came faster than Nepeta expected it to. Wednesday had found her buying a plastic sled thing that Terezi insisted on them taking to the park to play. She’d returned home sopping wet and exhausted from fun, Terezi having called a ton of kids over to start an epic snowball fight. Thursday had her buying gifts for her parents; a grey sweater and mittens set for her dad, and a new night gown for her mom. She spent the rest of the time packing her suit cases (two of which were brand new as well) with all of her new gear. She wrapped her parents’ gifts and put them under the tiny fake tree she’s bought a few years back when her mom got too sick to have a real one. Then she took her stuff and walked back to school with it. She was glad Kanaya had let her borrow the wheeled luggage she was using now; lugging it up the hill to school would’ve been a wreck otherwise. 

As she turned the corner she heard a honk from behind her. She turned to see Jake, Dirk, and Dave pulling up in Dirk’s carrot orange Camero.

“Hop in girl, don’t you know its damn cold out there?” Dirk demanded. Jake got out and put Nepeta’s luggage in the trunk. She climbed in the car and they were at the school faster than she would’ve gotten there walking for sure. 

They got there just as the bus was arriving. Feferi climbed in to talk to the driver and they came out to open the luggage racks under the bus. Dirk and Jake took care of hers as she wandered over to the group of people already waiting. Vriska was hugging Tavros next to her car and talking to Aradia. Equius had all of Aradia’s and his luggage and was taking it to the bus; Sollux was messing with a laptop. John, Jade, and Jane were dropped off by their dad and they came over and put their luggage away too. Jane flipped her phone out to text Roxy as she walked over to Dirk and Jake. Nepeta waved at everybody and stood off by an empty parking space. She heard the roar of an engine and turned to see Terezi tearing down the other side of the parking lot. She swung into a parking spot and leapt out of the car laughing.

Karkat fell out of the passenger side and knelt on the ground, “TEREZI ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!”

“No Karkat calm down it was only in the parking lot,” Terezi snorted and covered her mouth with a hand.

Gamzee slowly climbed out of the back seat with a dazed expression on his face. He turned to look at Terezi and then gave her a fist bump, “Good one sis, I haven’t seen that much color in him since summer.”

“No problem! Karkat come on don’t be a baby get up and help with your crap,” Terezi popped the trunk of her car and started unloading bags and gear. Karkat stood up and dusted his grey jeans off and snatched up a duffle bag from the floor. She chucked it into the bus and stood with his arms crossed, “There, I helped with my crap – oof!”

Terezi chucked another bag at him, “then while you’re standing there put this in there too.”

“What do I look like a servant?!”

“Hey shouty pipe down some people are trying to talk in peace over here,” Vriska yelled at him.  
He rolled his eyes and tossed the bag in the bus, and then he walked over to stand next to Terezi and Gamzee. They started a conversation about soda, because Gamzee was explaining that he’d brought a ton of Faygo to drink with him, and Karkat was loudly arguing that Faygo was ‘gross nasty trash’. Terezi shrugged and left the two to their fight and wandered around. 

Kanaya pulled up with Rose and quietly unloaded their stuff into the bus. Roxy pulled up on her moped and scowled at Rose, “thanks for the ride,” she snarled.

“At least I brought your stuff with me, you weren’t even ready to go when we were, and I warned you we wouldn’t wait,” Rose snapped back.

“Whatever,” Roxy walked her moped over to the bike rack and locked it up with two chains with a padlock for each, and then she snapped alarms around each lock. Once satisfied with her handy work she wrapped a long scarf around her neck and wandered over to where Jane was waiting for her.

Feferi was checking off a list of people and she looked around with confusion, “Nepeta, where’s Eridan?”

“I don’t know, I was wondering the same thing!” Nepeta replied with anxiety. He was the reason she was going on this trip, leaving her dad all alone for a whole week. She was debating going home when a short limo pulled up to the bus. Eridan climbed out in a huff and scowled at everybody. The driver popped the trunk and grabbed Eridan’s luggage and put it under the bus. Feferi rolled her eyes and checked his name off the list. He scowled at the driver, who handed him a gift wrapped box and walked away from the car. He continued to scowl at everyone until his eyes lit upon Nepeta and he smiled.

He walked over and gave her a quick hug before handing her the box, “I hope you like it, I had my old nanny teach me how to do this so I could make it for you,” he rubbed the back of his head with a hand and blushed. Nepeta smiled at him, “I’ll open it later, do you like my jacket?” she asked as she twirled around and showed him the golden brown colored jacket. She was wearing her olive colored scarf and mittens and she smiled at him. He smiled back and gave her another hug.

“Money very well spent, you should’ve bought more.”

“I did silly! It’s all packed up right now. Kanaya and Rose and Terezi wouldn’t let me leave until I bought half the mall I think.”

He pecked her on the lips and then gave Terezi a thumbs up, “Exactly what I wanted to hear.”  
Feferi climbed to the top of the stairs in the bus, “Load up everybody it’s time to go!”

The bus ride up to the mountains was uneventful. Everybody sat and talked and yelled and acted like kids the whole way there, and after about four hours they rounded the last bend and made it to the cabin.

Nepeta thought the place looked like a wooden mansion. She didn’t even know how somebody could fit such a big place in the mountains. It was three stories tall, and huge. There were wrap around balconies on every floor. She stared at it as the boys grabbed the bags from under the bus. Once everything was unloaded Feferi stood in front of the doors to the cabin mansion.

“Okay guys, no fighting over rooms! They’re all pretty much the same, but as you can imagine I get the master bedroom,” she opened the doors and walked inside, “the game room is down that hall, indoor spa area is downstairs, there are four bedrooms down here, I don’t remember how many on the second story, and then the third, don’t be annoying and ask if there’s an elevator. Oh, whatever. You guys figure it out! Go, go, I need to lie down, come on Sol I have a headache,” she grabbed his hand and started towards the stairs.

Everybody was milling around, soon the bottom rooms were taken. Nepeta walked up the stairs and picked a door on the left. When she walked to the window she gasped, there was a lake down the cliff from where she was. She sat down on the window seat and stared at the lake. People walked by picking rooms and shouting at each other. Kanaya and Rose took the room across from her. She waved as they put their stuff in piles. Eridan walked by and winked and banged into the room next door to her. She ignored everybody until all was settled down.

Somebody was poking her; she opened an eye to find Terezi, Aradia, and Vriska standing above her in towels.

“Tell me you brought a bathing suit,” Vriska said to her.

“What for?”

“Didn’t you listen to Feferi? There’s an indoor spa here in the basement! All the guys are in the game room except for Eridan, he disappeared at some point in the day, Kanaya and Rose are in the library, Fef and Sol are sleeping, and I think Roxy, Jane and Jade are already down there.”

“I didn’t think to bring a bathing suit,” Nepeta moaned as she rubbed her eyes. Something plopped into her lap and she looked down. A black one piece sat there.

“Guess it’s a good thing I was that little,” Vriska turned to walk away, “in elementary school.”

“Thanks for the half compliment Vriska!”

“Doesn’t that line sound familiar?” Terezi asked, laughing.

“Ah shut up,” Vriska muttered as she closed the door.

Someone had left a big white towel on her bed. She changed into the bathing suit, which as still I tad too big, much to her annoyance, and then wrapped herself in the towel. The girls were waiting for her outside her room, and they all walked down to the basement together. They could hear shouts and laughter coming from the game room, and then a crash and somebody yelled, “Ah come on Equius!”

The girls hurried down the stairs quickly and opened the door into the steamy spa room. There was a big Jacuzzi in one corner, where Roxy and Jane were lounging. A small, plain heated pool sat in the opposite corner, and that was where Jade and Aradia were swimming around. Nepeta opted for the swimming pool as the other girls made their way to the hot tub. She slipped into the cool water and smiled at Aradia and then Jade. They played around for a while and then joined the group in the hot tub. They talked about men and movies and food. Jane said she was going to bake red velvet brownies later for after dinner, and Roxy complained that she wanted one now. So far, winter break was a good one.

Dinner was a ton of soups and pizza. Everybody grabbed plates and bowls from a long table and set to work on serving themselves. They all sat at a tables set up in the spacious dining room area and Feferi announced that after dinner there would be karaoke in the game room. As people finished eating and stacking their plates and bowls into bins, they walked into the large game room.

“It’s been cleaned up since we were in here last,” Eridan noticed when him and Nepeta walked through the door, “It was a mess because Zahhak had a fit.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal you jerk shut up and leave him alone,” Karkat muttered as he plopped down on a bean bag chair. Gamzee sat cross legged next to him and Terezi hopped into his lap, “guys what gives? Get off me Terezi!”

“No this is a real comfy spot,” she wrapped her arms around him so he couldn’t push her off and he sighed.

“Whatever Rezi, just don’t crush me okay?”

“Yes! Seat secured!”

Eridan pulled Nepeta over to a plushy love seat and curled up around her. She sighed and closed her eyes and relaxed into his chest. Eridan looked around as everybody filed in and took up seats on couches and chairs and bean bags. There was more furniture in here now than there had been before. He glanced at the stage where Sollux was wiring up a karaoke machine monstrosity. There were microphones on stands, on the floor, and on a table. The guy was just finishing up plugging in three televisions on stands across the low stage. Feferi was handing around binders with song titles to choose from in them. When he got his he handed it to Nepeta, “I don’t want to sing anything, so you sing something for me.”

“I don’t want to sing either,” she whispered sleepily, “I just want to lay here and take a nap.”

He smiled and opened up the booklet, “how about if I’ll sing a song you do one too?”

“You just said you didn’t want to do one though.”

“Maybe I lied. I want to see you sing.”

“But I really don’t want to, I’m sleepy!”

He tickled her sides until she started to giggle, “I heard from Aradia that you slept all day, I don’t wanna hear you say you’re sleepy.”

“I didn’t sleep all day! Vriska tell him I was swimming with you guys!”

Vriska smacked him on the back of the head as she walked by, “Eridan, she was swimming with us for about half an hour. She was sleeping for the rest of the day. Oh, what Nep don’t give me that look! You were sleeping all day and I’m not going to lie to Ampora, he’ll get all mad and huffy and scowl at us all.”

Nepeta rolled her eyes as Vriska walked away laughing to sit with Tavros. She snatched the list from his hands and looked it over, then handed it back without turning the pages and started looking with him. He grinned as he pointed to one song in particular. She grinned back and nodded and then put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. People were passing the sign up list around and she put hers and Tav’s and then passed it to Terezi. 

“Better hurry Nep, looks like we’re next to fill the list out,” Eridan whispered. 

“Ugh okay fine! But you better be serious and pick one too,” Nepeta huffed as she opened the book and scanned it for a song. She liked Phantom of the Opera, and she decided she would attempt the Angel of Music. She put that one on the front of her mind and tossed the book at Eridan. He grabbed it and looked through it and picked She Will Be Loved, by Maroon 5. Nepeta rolled her eyes again and grabbed the list Gamzee was handing her and signed them both up. Once everybody was done Feferi stood at the stage and cleared her throat to get everybody’s attention.

“If everyone has filled out the form we can begin. We don’t have to go in order of the list but it was first come first serve so, if Rose and Kanaya are ready they’re going to start us off with Defying Gravity from Wicked!”

Everybody applauded as the two girls walked up the front and took their places. Sollux worked the sliders and dimmed the lights as the music started up. They sang perfectly together, and Tavros had a twinkle in his eye by the time the song was over. He took out a small notebook and jotted something down before tucking it back into his shirt pocket. 

John came up and sang Jesus Christ Superstar with gusto and everybody laughed and sang along to the chorus with him. Dirk and Jake jumped up and performed Greased Lightning like there was no tomorrow. All the girls pretended to swoon and cry like fan girls, the boys pretended to hold them all back from the stage with jealous waving fists. 

Dave jived to Footloose, and pulled Jade up to dance with him during the chorus. Everybody got up and rocked out with him too. When it was Jade's turn to go up and sing she nervously twirled her hair as she got up. When she was finally in place, Sollux started the music to an old classic, My Favorite Things. Jade felt more comfortable once she got singing.   
She had a lovely voice and held the notes perfectly as they dangled in the air when she sang. Tavros wrote more notes furiously in his notebook and beamed while she sang.

Next Roxy got up from her spot, and stumbled her way to the front, a little tipsy. She murmured to Sollux, who nodded and set a track in place. As the opening notes started, Roxy regained some of her balance while she belted out the lines of Roxie, from Chicago!. Her hips swayed back and forth with the saucy tune, dancing with the song, hitting the high notes with gusto. As she struck a pose at the end, Tavros was once again jotting down notes furiously.

After the applause, Jane was up and ready for her go at the mic. Everyone sighed at the classic Abba song Jane picked, as the opening chords played. She actually had moves, and jived just like she was out of the 80's. Dancing Queen was her anthem, and anyone that knew her would attest to it, since she rocked the song like Rose with a scarf. Tavros was almost giggling once she hit the crescendo of the song, and held the notes perfectly.

Terezi was already up at the mic, her song queued up. As the song started, Karkat hit his forehead with his palm. When she started the lyrics to Let's Hear It for the Boy, his other hand followed for a double face palm. Tavros couldn't deny that the girl could sing, as he was taking notes all through her performance and little foot shuffle. Near the end, she dragged Karkat up to swing him around like only a jazz baby could.

Taking a page out of Dave's book, Eridan went for irony this time around. Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved crooned its way out of the stereo, and Nepeta perked up at his voice. Now granted, she didn't like Maroon 5, but Eridan's velvet vocals were making her rethink that opinion quickly, as he kept his eyes locked on hers the entire song. He clutched the mic in its stand like it was Nepeta's small hand in his, smiling a bit when he got to the chorus. At the end of the tune, he closed his eyes as he sang out the final lines, a smile on his face.

After Eridan finished and sat down, Nepeta cuddled up next to him, listening to his heartbeat, which had quickened from the attention and Nepeta clutching his hand. When Vriska got up, Tavros got a starry look in his eyes, excited to hear his lady sing. When the song started, nobody could place it. When her lips parted and angel song came out, mouths dropped and gasps were had. Her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream was pure perfection. Tavros was actually not taking notes, not from lack of talent but he actually dropped his pencil in surprise of her lovely voice. Aradia actually had tears in her eyes by the time Vriska's voice waned in the last note, and sat down silently with a small smile on her face.

When Feferi got up and in her place, she said "I doubt I can top everyone else, so I'll just do something a bit more lighthearted" With Terezi agreeing beforehand to speak Elphaba's parts, Feferi belted out Wicked's Popular, sounding every bit like a Galinda. Everyone giggled at the lyrics and smiled when she belted the unbelievably high and long notes, Tavros once again scribbling away in his little notebook. While he was seeing pages of music in front of him, Rose and Kanaya were both on the same page with visions of pink fluffy dresses and silver crowns. Clapping and compliments ensued after Feferi sat down again, smiling after her favorite song ended.

As Tavros got up, he looked at home in front of everyone. As Styx's Renegade came on, his deep voice crooned along with it. The fluffy Mohawk fitted the song like Michael Jackson's silver glove. The most surprising thing was that before he got to the guitar segment, he whipped out one from behind the sound system, Sollux handing him the amp chord. Mouths hung wide as Tavros tackled the guitar solo with ease, head rocking with the beat and hips swinging. As he growled into the mic, Vriska looked on in surprise and appreciation. Tavros saw this look, and continued singing on with a smirk on his face, using all his musical know how on his song. When his song ended, applause was very noticeable and appreciated.

"Since when did my Tavros rock?" Vriska exclaimed. When he sat back down she gave him a kiss and play punched him in the arm. He blushed like no tomorrow and gave her a hug that she sunk into happily.

After many compliments from Gamzee to his man Tavros, he got up and adjusted the mic to his substantial height. Everyone almost fell over laughing when The Beatles' Yellow Submarine came on. Gamzee actually could carry a tune in a bucket, much to everyone's surprise. He looked blissed out as he sang his theme song, giggling when the horn sound queued up with the beat, which he tapped his foot to. His favorite part was doing the voices in the middle. Gamzee had fun when he sang to say the least, as he swayed back and forth. When the song wound down, he sat with a chuckle at his antics.

After Aradia stepped up and went to the mic, she let out a nervous giggle and sighed as her favorite song came on. Tavros had heard this song before in an old production of RENT, yet he still preferred it when Aradia sang Seasons of Love. Her voice was beautiful as it melded to fit the song. Her eyes were closed and a smile on her face throughout the entirety of the ballad. She sang each and every solo with heart and soul, and it was noticeable. Sollux had a few memories of Aradia and he attached to this song as well, so it stirred a bit of something up in him as well. Aradia held the tune like a baby.

When Equius got up to sing, everyone was surprised. Figuring he would pass up the chance to go in front of everyone solo. Nobody was surprised when Tarzan's You'll Be in My Heart started up, as he had a soft spot for Disney flicks. He actually sang like an angel, smiling the whole ride. Aradia grinned at him the most; proud he was up in front of the bunch of them. She was not there as he sat down, however, but returned shortly with a towel. All those nerves come with a price.

Terezi giggled when Karkat stood up, amused to hear his gravelly voice attempt to sing. Sollux queued up a fan favorite, Luck be a Lady Tonight from Guys and Dolls. When he belted out the opening note, Terezi's mouth fell agape, glasses slipping from her nose a bit. His voiced gained a deep, suave tone to it while he crooned out the song to his lady. Terezi actually blushed when Karkat threw her a wink and a smile. He actually strutted around to the beat, staying in rhythm the entire time. The last note he held as he stared at Terezi, making her so red a tomato would be jealous.

When Nepeta got up to sing, Eridan smiled and kissed her hand before she took her place. When the song started, Tavros gasped, as he was the only one to recognize the classic. Phantom of The Opera was his favorite, and he had not ever seen anyone hold par to his expectation of the tune. When her lips parted and she started to sing, mouths dropped yet again that night, yet stayed agape as she matched the song's title, The Angel of Music. The haunting melody captured their hearts for the while, and held them in musical chains while her voice wove through the notes like a thread through fabric. Eridan got a starry look in his eyes, adoring his noble lady even more. As she reached the top notes of the song, Kanaya sighed and leaned on Rose's shoulder. Nepeta had no idea what her voice did to the others, as she giggled nervously when she returned to her seat next to Eridan, who kissed her lightly on her musical lips. Then the compliments and clapping came like a tidal wave, Tavros almost begging her on his knees to audition for the next play.

“But Tavros I could never get up on stage! I would be so scared I’d pass out or something, please don’t be like this,” she looked at him as he wringed her hands, “besides the other girls were better than me! Didn’t you hear Vriska? You should be asking her not me.”

“No Vriska is guaranteed a slot in the play, you are going to audition,” he scolded as the twinkle in his golden eyes grew, “Nepeta please do this for me you would be the best of the best! Nepeta, did you even hear yourself? Did you?! You were making everyone cry because of the beauty coming out of your mouth!”

“It is true dear,” Kanaya said from her seat beside Rose, “”there is no doubt in my mind that you should get up on stage.”

“You just have to!” Aradia called.

“Please do Nepeta,” Equius agreed.

“You’d be a total tool if you didn’t,” Dave said and Jade elbowed him.

“It’d be a damn miracle to see you on stage,” Gamzee said from his spot on the floor.

“I would love it to see you being heard by the whole school, by all our families and by the community. Just think of how proud we would all be with our little Nepeta up on stage,” Eridan whispered into her ear.

She narrowed her eyes and scanned the room. Those who hadn’t spoken up nodded or gave her a thumbs up and grinned. She let out a sigh and double face palmed, “I don’t know you guys! This is a totally crazy reaction for a silly karaoke game.”

Everybody sighed and shook their heads. Tavros stumbled back to his seat with a crestfallen expression on his face. She saw him and let out her own sigh, “fine. I’ll do it.”

Everybody howled and cheered and Tavros jumped up and pulled her into a hug. She rolled her eyes and smiled at all of her friends. Feferi was talking to Sollux who was typing furiously into the computer that ran the system.

“Hey everybody get up!” She demanded, “We’re going to sing some group songs now!”

She pointed up to the rafters of the room at a camera, “Sol’s rigging the camera to record us so I can make a memories video, or well, so he can. What songs do you want to do guys?”

“I want to do the Time Warp,” Vriska yelled out.

“We are the Champions!”

The list went on for a while until Feferi shot up her hand, “Okay everybody calm down! No casualties please? We will vote for two songs, so put your heads down and raise your hands when I call the song you want. No cheating!”

She called out some of the songs she’d heard, when she got to the Time Warp and We are the Champions everybody’s hands shot up. She rolled her eyes and nodded to Sollux, who put the discs in the machine and flipped the switches onto all the mics. Everybody crowded around and waved at the camera as the music started up. They all got into a line and did the Time Warp like there was no tomorrow. They all collapsed laughing to the floor when the song ended and had to scramble back up again when the next one started. They all crooned to We are the Champions like bosses. They held onto each other and swayed to the rhythm of the music in one big group and made faces at each other at different times and they all sighed when it ended. 

Everybody clapped and waved to the camera again as Sollux trotted over to turn it off. He grinned and said, “That’th all folkth!”

Everybody slowly made their way to their rooms as Feferi reminded them about breakfast and the day plans, “I’ll tell you all more in the morning,” she explained with a huge yawn. She grabbed Sol’s hand and they went up to the third floor. Everybody went their separate ways after hugging their other halves, and using the restroom to brush teeth and wash faces. After a half hour went by from the time of the last song, everybody was in bed and swiftly falling asleep.

And winter went on around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had help with this chapter, back when I wrote it a couple months ago (I have up to chapter 14 finished already). I'll be publishing slowly until I catch up with myself. Again, your comments are always welcome! It keeps me going so please give me your opinion.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two of a few of winter break!

When Nepeta woke up the next morning all was still quiet. She looked at the clock on the nightstand and it glowed 6:00 at her. She stretched and got out of bed, slipping on her hat and slippers and grabbing a towel, she made her way to the girls’ collective bathroom. She climbed into the shower and turned the heat up high, nobody was going to be up for another hour, hour and a half, so she could take a hot shower. She ran shampoo through her hair and breathed in the scented steam, letting out the breath in a rushing sigh. She finished up her shower and pulled on a pair of grey long johns and a light colored long sleeve shirt. She padded back to her room just in time to watch the sun rise over the lake. She pulled out the digital camera her dad had let her borrow and snapped a few pictures, her mother always loved the sunrise, back when she could still get around to see it happen. Nepeta beamed at how nice the photos had come out and decided to bring the camera along to snap pictures of her friends playing. If she got enough, maybe she could give them to Fef and she could have scrap books made.

Nepeta loved making scrapbooks, taking pictures and stickers and glitter, and creating a book full of memories to keep for a lifetime. She wondered if maybe they could all go to a scrapbooking shop and make their own with the prints, and decided that she would inquire about it to Feferi. The sun rose fully and she heard grumbling from a disgruntled looking Vriska. The other girl scowled slightly towards the window, and then continued to shuffle towards the bathroom. The door clicked shut, and the shower started up, hot enough to make steam billow out from under the door. Aradia came up the stairs, looking a lot more awake and less annoyed at the prospect of sunlight, and knocked on Nepeta’s open door before bounding in to sit on the edge of her bed.

“Nepeta, good morning! I’m glad I’m not the only early riser in the house, besides Vriska in the shower, and she only woke up because of a head ache or something. I heard her complaining to Tavros, who’s in the room in between us downstairs. Anyways, how long have you been up?”

“Since six, I’m used to waking up early to help my dad around the house before school, so I always wake up super early. Aradia, do you know what the plans are for today? You have the list of things right?”

“Yeah of course! Today is a day of outdoorsy-ness! Everybody’s getting kicked out an hour after breakfast and won’t be let back in unless they have to use the restroom. You can go sledding, skiing, snowboarding, build snowmen, and have snowball fights, anything y’all want to do, as long as it involves staying outside. Lunch is going to be chicken noodle soup in bread bowls, and it’s going to be served on the enclosed balcony just below your bedroom widow, so we all get to look at this glorious view!” Aradia was practically bouncing up and down with excitement at all the ideas of outdoors. She grinned as Vriska wandered in damp and slightly less dead looking, “Good morning spider breath, I’m glad to see you rise up from the dead on this glorious morning.”

“Bite me, why are you even calling me that I don’t like spiders that much anymore, morning Nepeta,” Vriska plopped down across the bed next to Aradia.

“Ha yeah right, you’re telling me you don’t like spiders anymore? So what will I tell Little John and Big Jack when you go to throw them out in the snow?”

“Who are Little John and Big Jack?” Nepeta wondered out loud.

“John and Jack are Vriska’s tarantulas. John got her Lil John when she was a freshman, and BJ is this old monster she insists is a big sweetie when he isn’t busy murdering something,” Aradia explained.

Vriska rolled her eyes and buried her face in a pillow she grabbed, “I’m too tired for this! Other than Lil John and BJ I don’t go hunting to look at spiders in the wild anymore, not since that time in the desert.”

“What happened in the desert?”

“She got bit by a Vinegaroon, they make your breath smell like vinegar…and your sweat, and your –”

“Okay we get it okay? So ever since then they’ve called me spider breath, because those are a type of spider. It’s really annoying if you ask me, it makes me sound like I ate one or something,” Vriska interrupted Aradia before she could continue the story. She sat up and then whacked her with the pillow she was holding.

Aradia turned slowly with a scowl and picked up a pillow too, “you are so on Vris.”

“Make my morning Ari.”

They leapt at each other with pillows flailing, giggling like loons and constantly falling over. Vriska had the upper hand with her superior height and weight, she used leverage to pull Aradia over and tackle her with her pillow. Aradia left out a whooshing breath and laughed as she fought to wiggle out from under the heavier girl. Vriska whooped and pumped a fist in the air with victory as she collapsed backwards to breathe. Kanaya and Rose opened the door to their room to scowl across the hallway with tired eyes, then they looked at each other and shrugged, Rose grabbed a towel and made for the bathroom and Kanaya walked across the hallway, “A pillow fight? At 7:45 in the morning? How old are we ladies? Last time I checked we were in high school, and you two are older than me and Nepeta over there. Also, if I am correct, this is her room. You two just messed up her bed, which I know she keeps tidy when it is not in use.”

Vriska rolled her eyes and chucked a pillow at Kanaya, which the girl caught easily and held it in one hand. Terezi bounded up the stairs already dressed for the day and looking very awake, “I’m so glad all of the boys are so lazy! I got to use their shower before any of them could turn it into a hell hole boys call a bathroom, but I ran into Equius without a shirt on my way out,” she wiggled her eyebrows at Aradia, “what a beef cake!”

“I’d like to hear Karkat if he heard you say that Rezi,” Aradia scolded as she patted the bed next to her. Terezi sat down and rolled her eyes, today was a contacts day, “he would blow a fuse and all we’d hear about all day is how you like buff guys and how he’s not nor ever will be buff blah blah blah.”

“You’re right! For the sake of the hearing world, I never said a word about Equius or his beefiness!”

The five girls laughed for a while, and Rose wandered in with Jade in tow, “look who I found lurking, she didn’t want to come in.”

“I was not lurking Rose! I was waiting for you to get out of the bathroom, I just so happened to be walking over here when you came out!” Jade retorted.

“What is this? Has Nepeta’s bedroom turned into the girls meeting room or something?” Rose asked as she noticed the amount of girls in the room, Nepeta shrugged form her spot on the window seat when suddenly a very angry, very hung-over Roxy leaned against the doorway.

“I’m going to murder all of you later,” she slurred with her hand covering her eyes, “you woke me up so early I can’t even think straight, ugh, I need a shower.”

She banged into the bathroom and Jade’s jaw dropped, she scowled at Rose and the blonde shook her head, “let her take a shower, Jane will deal with her when she gets out won’t she? Those two have been friends for years, so she probably has aspirin and some baked good ready in her room when she gets out.”

“Yeah, Jane was friends with her before her mom married John’s and my dad, so I don’t really know how long they’ve been friends. Probably about as long as Strider and our cousin have been ‘best friends’”

“Jake is your cousin?” There were more than a few questioning sets of eyes in the room trained on jade.

“Yeah by some weird grandparent way, it makes no sense to us but our dad seems to understand it. And besides, haven’t you guys ever noticed how _the same_ he and John look? It’s just one of those weird things that happen I guess.”

There was movement from the room next door to Nepeta and the girls got quiet. They pressed their ears to the wall and could just make out Eridan muttering about annoying girls annoying him in the morning. He cursed when he bumped into something and they heard something get thrown to the floor.

“His highness has awakened,” Vriska teased.

“Quickly ladies, let us make a gauntlet of beauties to greet him and lead him to the bathing room,” Aradia mocked.

They crept out and made an entourage outside his door. When he threw it open he did a double take and slammed the door shut again. They heard him say something about lousy damned women before he opened the door more slowly and gave them a death glare, “what are you girls doing outside my room so early in the morning?” He asked as he scanned the group for answers.

Vriska stepped up and bowed to him, “my prince, we are here to escort you to the bathing room, if you will allow us the honor.”

He looked like he was going to strangle her right there but he spied Nepeta within the crowd of girls and just wiped his hand down his face and sighed, “hell no, just…go back to doing whatever loud, annoying things you girls insist on doing so early in the morning,” he gave Nepeta a quick hug and trotted down the stairs, flipping off the rest of the girls when they started laughing at him.

After that everybody started waking up faster, Roxy looked more sober now with Jane handing her chunks of cinnamon bread and putting a cold washcloth over her eyes, a majority of the boys were sitting in the den talking about what to do that day. Equius wanted to go to the archery range and practice target shooting, Karkat wanted nothing to do with the outside world, and Gamzee was prodding him in the side and telling him to behave and be a good friend and play outside with everybody else, Terezi agreed and made him join her snowball fight team. John and Jade were going sledding, and Kanaya and Rose were going to hike to the frozen pond and ice skate. Dave slid into the room and said he wanted to join the two sledding twins. Dirk and Jake asked Roxy and Jane if they wanted to go hiking and they agreed, saying it might as well be worth it to get fresh air for Roxy. Vriska asked if anyone wanted to make a snowman and Feferi and Sollux agreed to help. Aradia already had her snowboard out and was going to check out some of the slopes near the archery range. Gamzee decided he would join her after the snowball fight. Tavros said he wanted to join his bro in the snowball fight, and Terezi grabbed Nepeta and told her it would be girls versus boys fight to the death. Eridan rolled his eyes and sat down in an overstuffed chair and said he’d go wherever she went. Nepeta explained that she would be taking pictures, and if she got enough good ones of everybody throughout vacation she would get prints, and maybe they could all make scrapbooks.

Feferi perked up at this and agreed that that would be a wonderful idea; she knew just the place where they could all make scrapbooks. After that the breakfast bell rang and everyone made their way to the dining room, where a buffet line of trays waited them. Everybody piled on the bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast, fruit, muffins, juices, and milk and plopped down at tables to feast on the hardy fare. One of Feferi’s maids came around with coffee and several people partook in the aromatic affair.

Once everybody had eaten their fill, the plates were cleaned up and put away to the kitchens and they dispersed to gather the things they needed. Roxy went to the kitchen to get a thermos of coffee, and then met her group by the door to leave. Nepeta took a shot of them waving as they started up their trail. While she waited for Terezi to announce the battle grounds for the snowball fight she wandered over and found Vriska, Feferi, and Sollux starting their snowman by the balcony where the snow was heaped up, they had a pretty good sized ball going already and she asked them to pose for a few shots, they obliged, and after she was done she heard Terezi yelling her name. She found them all a ways from the house, building snow walls across a short distance from each other. The boys had a system going, using Gamzee’s height to their advantage to build a tall wall, Karkat and Tavros were at work making as many snowballs as they could, and Eridan was helping with the wall. Terezi was making the wall and she gestured for Nepeta to start making snowballs.

“Wait a minute,” she snapped a picture of the boys and then turned to look at where Terezi was alone, “hey wait a minute! There are more boys than girls! One of you needs to come over here and be on our team, or else it isn’t fair,” Nepeta looked to see which boy would come over, figuring Eridan would because of his tendency to always want to be near her. Much to her surprise, Gamzee strolled across the no man’s land between the groups.

“I’ll help a couple of sisters out,” he drawled as he started to make Terezi’s short wall considerably taller, “you two make them snowballs while I take care of this here wall.”

“Thanks Gamz I owe you one,” Terezi said as she switched to helping Nepeta with the snowballs. Once the wall was as high as the boys’, and the pile of snowballs was tall enough, Terezi called for readiness. Then she shouted a ‘GO!’ and the snowballs started flying. Within minutes each team’s walls were crumbling under the onslaught, the boys’ team faring worse because of Gamzee’s killer pitcher’s arm. The first one to get a snowball to the face was Karkat, who went off and started throwing the snowy projectiles at an even faster pace. He crowed with pride when one hit Terezi in the chest and she jumped over the wall with two in her hands, dodging fire from both sides, and crammed them into his face. The two rolled across the snow, flailing and laughing, until she ended up on top of him, tickling him through his thick baggy sweater until he was crying from laughter. Everybody laughed at the pair, and because Terezi couldn’t move from the cramps in her sides from laughing so hard, she called off the fight and collapsed in the snow next to Karkat.

Nepeta had gotten some good pictures of the pair, and wandered over to where the boys had congregated to see what they were going to do now. Tavros said he was going to get some coffee and then head over to see how Vriska’s snowman was going; Gamzee went with him to grab his board to meet Aradia. Eridan grabbed Nepeta’s hand and they found the area where the hills were just steep enough for sledding and snowboarding, and found the archery range. Equius was taking a break, and Aradia was giving him a cup of hot cocoa and a towel.

“I can’t believe you sweat like this even in the cold, you’re going to get frostbite on your face or something,” she teased as he wiped his face.

“I almost broke the bow again, it is very stressing when that happens, I am still trying to get it down you know…not using too much strength.”

“Hey guys, can I get a picture?” Nepeta asked, holding up the camera. Aradia wrapped her arms around his neck and put her chin on top of his head. She grinned and closed her eyes, and he smiled sheepishly as Nepeta got the picture. She sat down with them and they chatted until Gamzee got there with his board and he and Aradia took off towards the slopes she’d found. Once they were gone Equius went back to practicing, and Nepeta took a few pictures of him, then she called out her goodbyes and drug Eridan to find the twins and Dave. She heard John complaining about Dave hogging his sister from below and waved down to them, and then took a picture of them waving back. Jade wrangled up the boys and got them to help her bring the sled back up the hill.

“Want a go Nepeta? You can go with John because Dave has been monopolizing it all morning, mean thing that he is,” Jade scolded with a grin.

“Sure I’ll go, somebody take a picture of us going down?”

“I will,” Eridan took the camera and stood by jade and Dave as John got himself positioned on the sled with Nepeta in front of him.

“1-2-3!” he yelled and pushed off, the sled gaining speed like a roller coaster car. Nepeta threw her arms up into the air and laughed happily, Eridan snapping the shot and grinning like a fool. Then they went down together, with Jade getting a picture of them crashing into a snow drift and digging their way out again. They came back up the hill and gave the sled back and Nepeta went in search for where Aradia and Gamzee had gone to snowboard. She could just faintly make out their voices from where she was, and headed towards where she thought they were coming from. Eridan pointed down a slope between two trees, and they saw Gamzee do a flip, which she caught on camera, and make the landing. Aradia clapped, and Nepeta zoomed way in to get a macro view shot of them high fiving. Then she sighed and stretched and pulled Eridan back towards the house.

“I’m going to make us some hot cocoa okay?” she said as she set the camera down on the small table between lounge chairs and stood up, “want whipped cream?”

“Sure, do you want me to help you?”’

“No Eri its okay I got it.”

She wandered back into the house to find the hiking group sneaking in from a side door. Dirk put a finger to lips as they ran upstairs to go hide in somebody’s room. She shrugged and walked into the dining room where the makings for the cocoa were still out. She grabbed a thermos and filled it with hot milk, added a little cream to cool it down, a little cinnamon, and then a good helping of the chocolate sauce. She capped it, shook it up, and grabbed two big mugs and heaped a small bowl with homemade whipped cream. She brought it out to Eridan and poured him a glass, topped it with whipped cream, and handed it to him. He breathed in the steam and took a grateful sip and smiled at her warmly. She fixed her own cup and relaxed as she took the first few sips.

“Are you still upset about coming here this week? I know you didn’t want to leave your dad alone with your mom, but you need a break from all of it. You’re still young, so I’m sure he understands that we took you here and that I got you stuff you needed,” Eridan said, looking into his mug.

Nepeta looked up at him in shock, “you know about my mom?!” she voice shot up an octave and she stared at him with wide eyes, “how do you know about all of that?”

“The day you went to the mall with Terezi, I went to your house to meet your family. Your mom was having ‘a good day’ as your dad put it, so we sat and talked for a while. I told them who I was, where you were, and where I wanted you to go this week. At first your dad was against it, but then your mother put her hand over his and said ‘she’s a young girl honey, let her go and have fun with her friends. These are opportunities we never had as children, and she worked very hard all these years, both in school and at home, to help you with me, and keep the house clean, and to cook meals. This young man seems like he truly loves our baby girl, I want her to be happy. Let her go to the mountains.’ And so your dad agreed. After that she fell asleep, and your father and I sat and talked in the living room for an hour, just about things. He told me about you winning the scholarship, why would you hide that from us? I’m proud to know you’re so intelligent, we wouldn’t be ashamed of you that you went to public schools or that you’re ‘middle class’, it makes me feel rotten to have all this money when I know you and your family don’t have a whole lot. So I donated a sum to help pay your mother’s medical expenses.”

Nepeta stared at him, and he felt nervous now. He looked away from her and ran his finger around the rim of his glass, “if you’re mad at me just say so, I can’t bear to think that I upset you. I’m sorry.”

She started crying then. She didn’t understand how anybody could be so kind. She threw herself at him and clung to him, and he patted her head and cried too.

“I’m not mad at all, I’m so, so glad! I’m glad that you got to meet my mom on a good day; I’m glad that you got to talk to her. She probably isn’t going to live very much longer, and I’m so happy she got to meet the person who can make me so happy! You don’t even understand how amazingly _happy I am_ that this happened. It’s like a dream come true, and all of it keeps getting better and better and better!”

He chuckled and hugged her tighter, “I’m pleased that you aren’t upset. After I told Terezi what I did she warned me that you would probably be very upset with me. I was expecting hot cocoa in the eyes and maybe a punch in the face, not a tackle hug and you saying you were glad I did what I did.”

“I would never punch you in the face idiot. Maybe only if you were being really, really bad or something. But not for talking to my mom and dad, I’m kind of surprised he didn’t give you a speech about watching where you step or he’d cut off a limb or two or something.”

She felt his chuckles and she looked up at his face, “I never did say he didn’t,” he responded with a straight face. He looked his watch, “it’s almost time for lunch, and everybody’ll be coming back for food. What’s for lunch anyways?”

“Chicken noodle soup in bread bowls; we’re eating out here too by the way, so we don’t have to go too far,” she answered as she slid off of his seat and sat back down in her own. She downed the end of her hot cocoa and went to make more just as people were starting to make their ways back to the house.”

Terezi and Karkat were making their own batch of cocoa in mugs when she got there, and Terezi waved and then popped marshmallows into hers and Karkat’s mugs, “where are we eating again Nepeta? I know you know for some reason.”

“On the enclosed porch,” Nepeta thumbed back behind her, “all the tables are set up already, so we just have to sit and wait I guess.”

Terezi nodded and took Karkat’s hand and went to the porch. They sat at the same table Eridan had made his way to while she was getting the cocoa and more people were pouring in. Roxy and crew slunk outside and reappeared on the porch like they’d been out the whole time. Equius, Aradia, Gamzee, Dave, Jade, and John all walked in together with their gear left outside to be cleaned. Vriska, Tavros, Feferi, and Sollux came in with ideas for more snowmen.

After everyone was finally on the porch together, the cook brought out the food, which was delicious, steaming potato soup, or chicken noodle in bread bowls. Several drooled a bit, mostly the boys, but Terezi wouldn't deny she was starving. Gamzee picked up the bread loaf and slurped his soup out of it, with everyone else giving him sidelong glances. "What dudes, a bro has to eat like a bro has to eat." Was all he said on the matter. When tummies were full and the soup was gone, the kids sighed in contentment.

Nepeta jumped up in her seat and said, “Let’s have a scavenger hunt!”

“Yeah that sounds like a fun idea!” Tavros agreed, “What do you think Vris?”

“Yeah it sounds cool, what would we be doing Nepeta?”

“We would form teams of two! And then, each team writes a list of what the other team has to find! A person not playing goes and hides objects from that list around in the forest and the house, the teams each pick a list, and whoever finds all the objects and returns first wins!” Nepeta answered enthusiastically, “I’ve been thinking about this all day, since there isn’t really anything planned for tomorrow, wouldn’t it be a good idea?”

Several heads nodded and it was obvious pairs were being formed among the group. In the end there were four groups: Equius and Aradia, Tavros and Vriska, Feferi and Sollux, and Nepeta and Eridan. They all scrawled their lists together on sheets of paper, each group coming up with twenty things. They handed the lists over to John and Jade, who would set out in the morning and hide the stuff all over the place. Nepeta smiled and was glad her idea was a success.

“Look guys it’s snowing again,” Vriska sighed, “guess we won’t be going hiking Tavros.”

“It’s okay, I, uh, was getting really cold anyways. Let’s go play that video game you were telling me about in the, uh, game room,” he suggested.

“Okay, let’s do it! But I warn you, I’m gonna pulverize you!”

“That’s okay Vris; I’m not good at games anyways.”

The two wandered out of the dining room and made their way to their destination. Roxy and crew went off to sit by the fire and drink hot cocoa, Kanaya and Rose went to take a nap. Terezi, Karkat, Gamzee, and John went to play pool, and the people that left gear outside went to retrieve it before it was buried in the snow. Everybody went their separate ways to hang out until dinner time, and then after dinner there would just be dancing and chilling to Dave’s beats and Sollux’s ways with the lighting. The two had always joked that they should open a club someday, that it would be the hottest spot in town.

Nepeta decided she would curl up on a couch somewhere and take a nap, leave Eridan to his own devices for a while, but when she brought it up to him he rolled his eyes and said he’d had the same idea. So in the end they ended up on a couch asleep, and when Aradia walked by she couldn’t resist taking a picture. She set the camera back down quietly and tip-toed away from the sleepers. They didn’t wake up until dinner, which was a mix of different kinds of foods. Dancing was fun too, nobody could resist the music Dave played and they all partied until they were dropping.

The snow never stopped falling, and the quiet beauty of it all lulled the kids to sleep that night. 


	12. Chapter 12

Eridan opened his eyes slowly, the world softly blurred. He reached for his glasses and put them on, and the blur became focused. He rolled over and looked at the clock which read 7:30 AM. He frowned and sat up, not wanting to be awake this early in the morning on vacation. Breakfast wasn’t until 9:00, he should go back to sleep until at least 8:30. He got out of bed and stretched, pulling his striped pajama pants down from where they’d bunched up at the knees.

He walked to the window and squinted out at the lake. The view was nice and he knew Nepeta loved it a lot. He sighed and wished they never had to leave, or that they could all stay past Christmas. He might not let it show outwardly but he did enjoy the time he spent with everybody. He shuffled over to the wrapped box Nepeta had given him before he’d said his good nights the night before. It was wrapped in violet and green colored paper, and it was light, he’d promised he wouldn’t open it until Christmas morning.

Thinking of Christmas made him angry. His parents were both going to be away, he would be all alone in his great big house since the workers would be off. He’d sit alone at the big dining room table, probably eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner, open up this one gift in his room, and go to sleep. He hadn’t looked forward to a Christmas since he was a little kid. He picked up a book he’d been reading before he went to bed each night and cracked it open for a few minutes before finally deciding to take a shower.

 He grabbed a pair of dark purple jeans, a long sleeve black V- neck shirt, his socks, and a towel and made his way downstairs. He could just make out talking in a room, and then somebody shouted, and he shut the door before anybody thought he was snooping. It wasn’t his thing to go butting into other people’s business, and that had sounded like some serious business was going down. He turned the water on and found it to be almost cold, he let out a curse as he quickly washed his hair and scrubbed himself clean. He hopped out, toweled off, and got dressed. He brushed his teeth and then styled his hair, making a note to himself to get his streak redone soon.

As he walked out of the bathroom he almost collided with Sollux, who gave him a dirty look and raced back up the stairs with an aura of anger around him. Eridan scowled at the other boy’s retreating form and flipped him off. He sat on the arm of a chair and pulled his socks on and reached for the boots he’d left down here the night before. Aradia walked out of her room, puffy eyed, and curled up on a couch across from him. She must not have seen him, because she started to cry a minute later. Eridan looked at her nervously and sighed. He stood up and fished his hanky out of his pocket and walked over to her.

“Aradia, hey, what’s the matter?” He asked with honest worry in his voice.

She looked up at him and sighed, he offered her the hanky and she took it, dabbing her eyes and sitting up so he could sit, “it’s nothing really Eridan, I’m just having some regrets about some things that happened in the past. I guess I’m not the only one either,” she explained as she looked towards the stairs, “I’m just kind of confused right now.”

She turned and looked at him and shrugged, then seeming to fully realize who she was talking to she did a double take, “Eridan, did you actually just ask me what the matter was?” She chuckled at him as he narrowed his eyes at her.

“I guess I’ve had a good influence on my social skills lately,” he muttered, “If this has something to do with Sol, I apologize for him.”

She cocked a questioning eyebrow at him.

“He’s a huge douche and he needs to get a life outside of computers and crappy coding or whatever it is he does,” he grinned when she rolled her eyes and giggled, “so how’s things going with the sweaty, muscle beast you call a boyfriend? Oh, and what happened to ‘I don’t need a man’?”

Aradia threw his hanky at him as she laughed, “Things are going great with _Equius,_ I’m really happy in our relationship, although it isn’t as adorable as yours and Nepeta’s. You two are the definition of perfection for a couple. Magazines should take notes about you two and how you guys change each other so much.”

“Yeah right, I haven’t changed that much Aradia, I just don’t feel like I need to hate everybody anymore that’s all. I can see what makes all of you…you. Just because I scowl a lot and don’t talk to people a whole bunch doesn’t mean I’m trying to act better than you guys for something.”

Aradia stood up and curtsied in her night gown to him, “whatever you say your highness, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone to wake up and a shower to take,” she walked away towards the room across from hers. She knocked and then opened to door, shutting it softly behind her. Eridan watched her go and figured that Sollux definitely had something to do with her being upset. He just didn’t know how or why, with both of them in relationships.

He shrugged; this was why he didn’t get into other people’s business. He headed towards the dining room to see if there was any coffee or something ready yet and found a pot full of hot water with makings for tea. He made himself a cup, and walked out onto the front porch of the house. It had snowed a fair amount last night. He saw foot prints in the snow and remembered the scavenger hunt was today after breakfast. The twins had gone out to put all the stuff around, he kind of hoped they didn’t get lost in all the white snow. He finished his tea and went back upstairs to his room, hearing voices coming from Nepeta’s room as he walked by. One sounded really upset, the next one to speak sounded equally upset but quieter, and then Nepeta said something. He heard footsteps behind him and saw Vriska coming up the stairs. She gave him a nod before knocking on the door to Nepeta’s room and walking in. She yelled something and he heard something fall on the ground.

Nepeta walked out of the room and ran down the stairs before he could stop her. He threw up his hands and walked back into his room to read until breakfast time.

 

Breakfast was uneventful. The group of girls that had been in Nepeta’s room that morning sat at a table all around Aradia, who still had red rimmed eyes, they were ignoring their boyfriends like it was all their faults. Feferi joined them and asked about what the matter was and they quickly shook their heads and plastered fake smiles to their faces. They struck up a conversation about the different things that could be done before the end of the week, but when Karkat came up to Terezi she snapped at him to go away. Eridan was smarter, and just sat down at an empty table away from the group.

Equius sat down at the table with him and gave him a look. Dave, Tavros, and Sollux sat down with him after a while and they looked longingly at the girls.

“I wonder what happened this morning,” Equius muttered as he picked at his ham, “when Aradia woke me up earlier she seemed really upset. Now none of the girls will talk to us.”

Sollux stared at his plate unmoving and Eridan narrowed his eyes at him, “I don’t know what happened but I have a feeling that whatever it was it wasn’t something that should’ve happened.”

“I don’t think it’th anything,” Sollux shot back at him with a warning in his eyes, “the girlth are jutht going through thome kind of phathe or thomething.”

“Ha yeah right, because all of the sudden they don’t even want to look our way,” Dave retorted, “suddenly even Jade is angry about all things male and won’t talk to me or John or Jake or my bro, we didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, and because, uh, Vriska almost slapped me when I tried to give her a, uh, hug. She told me she was looking forward to the scavenger hunt this morning. Now, uh, I don’t think it’s going to be very fun to do when they’d, uh, rather slap us then look at us,” Tavros looked the most forlorn out of the group of boys because of how close the two were.

Eridan rolled his eyes and turned to look at the girls table. Nepeta was looking at him and pulled an overly sad face to show him how she felt. Then she turned back to her breakfast with a frown. He suspected the scavenger hunt wouldn’t be happening today, and if this tension continued, the rest of vacation wouldn’t very fun. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and finished his breakfast. The other guys were slowly finishing with a grave air around them, and he didn’t feel like being around them. He grabbed a big mug of coffee and wandered into the den, sitting on the couch he and Aradia had been talking on. Suddenly, Sollux was standing in front of him.

“You, me, out thide, now,” he ordered before walking out the front door.

Eridan flipped him off through the door before getting up and following with his hands in his pockets. He had a feeling Sollux was mad at him for something, and he could only handle the guy’s lisp for so long before he got seriously pissed. He walked outside into the cold to find him gesturing away from the house and walking away. Eridan followed with another annoyed sigh, the guy really had it coming to him if he kept it up. Finally, Sollux turned around and looked Eridan up and down.

“Tho, what did you overhear from me and AA Eridan? I’m not going to get into thith if you know what’th good for you, thtay out of our buthiness.”

“I didn’t hear anything Sollux, I’m just pissed that you did something that upset all of the girls so badly. What did she even do to you to make you yell at her? It’s not worth ruining everybody else’s vacation for you two to be having some kind of fight.”

“We aren’t having a fight. We were jutht talking about the past, and mithtakes we both made. If you inthitht that you heard nothing then, I’ll leave you alone. I’d rather not talk to you anywayth Ampora.”

As he walked away he pulled his hat down over his black hair. Eridan remembered a time when the guy had been blonde, browner, and then Kanaya had dyed it black as a joke at a party. He’d kept it since then, and it clashed with his pale skin tone. He waited until the other boy slammed back into the house, narrowly missing Zahhak as he walked out of the house. Eridan would’ve loved to see Equius pummel him, but the guy didn’t fly off the handle like he used to. Probably because of the good influences brought by Aradia and Nepeta.

Equius looked back at him and shrugged, wandering over to where Eridan was still standing. The dark skinned boy tilted his head so he could look at Eridan with his coffee brown eyes over his shades, “What was all of that about? Sollux does not usually talk to you for some reason, so I was coming out to see if everything was alright here,” he had his gloved hands in the pockets of his dark blue coat. He took them out, cracked his knuckles, and replaced them before shrugging, “I mean, if everything is okay here Ampora, I guess I will be on my way now,” he turned to go and Eridan reached out to stop him.

“Wait Zahhak, I’ve been meaning to ask you about some things,” Eridan said quickly, “I know you liked Nepeta, why didn’t you say something to me? Kanaya made me feel rotten during one of my fittings for the Halloween dance, telling me that you probably liked her more than me. If I’d known it from you first hand, she could be yours now. I’m sorry if I messed up your plans or anything, it’s just that she became really important to me at some point. I didn’t want to let her go you know?”

Equius just looked at him for a while, and then shrugged with a sigh, “Yes I did like her Ampora, and I liked her since the first day of school. She is a special girl, I am happy that you make her happy,” they both turned as the door opened and Aradia and Nepeta walked out holding mugs of something steamy. They waved at the boys before turning to each other and talking. Equius let the sides of his mouth quirk up a tad as he went on, “but you see, Aradia had been in my heart longer, she was just so hung up on Sollux to notice. I never had the courage to ask her anything until she came to my home to study, so I asked her to the dance. She is the best thing to happen to me in a while,” he shrugged again and then grinned out right, “well then Ampora let us go see if they still detest us shall we?”

Eridan and Equius made their way back up to the porch, and Nepeta and Aradia both smiled at them when they got to them.

“I’m looking forward to the scavenger hunt, are you Equius?” Aradia asked as she put her arm around his waist and beamed up at him. She looked a lot better than she had before and Eridan was secretly glad for it.

Equius nodded and gave her a hug. Eridan raised his eyebrows at Nepeta and she waved her hand at him, sipping her drink and then giving him the hug he wanted. The two couples wandered back into the house and Eridan reclaimed his seat on the couch, this time with Nepeta in tow. He took a sip of his coffee and grimaced because it was cold. ‘Stupid lousy Sollux, ruining my morning’ he thought as he set the drink down with a scowl. He turned to Nepeta and took her hands.

“What happened this morning to upset you girls so much?” He looked into her eyes and she frowned and looked at the floor.

“I’m not supposed to say anything Eri. It isn’t for me to tell. Aradia just had some stuff she needed to talk about that made us all really mad, but I honestly think the others overreacted; there was no reason to act that way to you boys this morning.”

“Nepeta, I know it has something to do with that idiot geek. He was yelling at her this morning for something wasn’t he?”

She looked up at him and then back to the floor, “I guess so, she wouldn’t really tell us a whole lot of details, so we don’t really know. All she would say was that it had to do with the past, and that mistakes were made, and that she didn’t know what was going to happen.”

He stood up and pulled her up with him, “If he hurts her, I’ll be sure to help Zahhak kill the guy, she’s a real good friend to have, so I just want her to be happy,” he shrugged and then gave her a sidelong look, “Do not tell anybody I actually enjoy being around them, it would totally shatter my image,” with that he puffed up his chest and strutted around with over exaggerated posture. Nepeta giggled at him and then sighed to herself.

Feferi peeked around the doorframe of the den, “Nepeta, if you two are ready, we’re going to start the scavenger hunt now, so if you will, please come tell us the rest of the rules.”

“Okay!”

They went out to the porch where the other teams were waiting. Equius was hugging Aradia tightly, Sollux stood off on the other side, not quite touching Feferi, and Vriska had an arm around Tavros’s shoulders. Nepeta and Eridan were the last team to be playing.

“Okay guys this is how it works,” she took the bag with the lists in it and began to have people pick randomly, “we each have a list of things we need to find. On the top of the list it should say the area where you can find the stuff. One lucky team gets to start out in the house, but they have to go almost to the lake at the end. The first group back with all the items on their list wins,” she looked up and winked at the others, “my list is the hardest! So I wish whoever just got it luck,” she had Eridan pull their list and she set the bag down.

Vriska gave hers a once over and nodded to Tavros. Feferi gaped at hers and Sollux’s list, Aradia was whispering into Equius’s ear and he kept nodding. Nepeta looked at Eridan and he raised his eyebrows and handed her their list.

She looked it over. They had to find a pink pinecone in a tree, a pair of earmuffs, an acorn with a green stem, a wooden bowl, a perler of a horse, a plastic goat toy, a purple sock, and then it said ‘the rest of your items will be on a piece of paper hidden in one of the objects’. Nepeta frowned and scratched her head. The others looked ready so she gave the nod and they all took off running. Nepeta’s list said that most of the things could be found near the ice skating pond, so they took off up the hill towards it. The sock was easy to find, draped over a fencepost. Eridan had to scale a tree to reach the pink pinecone that was tied to a high branch. They almost missed the perler of the horse because some snow had fallen and half buried it. After ten minutes of not finding anything they found the little goat standing high up on a boulder, which Nepeta climbed up to get. It took them a long time to find the acorn, and when they did they were stumped.

It was out on the pond a ways. They could see where the person who put it out there had walked, and she suspected it had been John with the shoe size. She told Eridan she would go get it because she was lighter than he was, and he looked like he was going to object but nodded instead. She set out across the snow covered ice slowly, stepping just where John had before. She almost fell on the ice as she almost got to the acorn, she did slip when she bent down to get it, and landed square on her bottom. Eridan called out her name in shock and she got up slowly and smiled and waved at him. She held the acorn up and slipped and slid her way back to him.

“That just leaves the bowl,” she said as she fell into his arms and back onto dry land.

“Yeah, seeing that we haven’t found the second half of the list in anything yet I think it’s safe to say it’s in the bowl, don’t you think?”

“Yeah I think it’s a good assumption.”

“Okay so maybe we should try looking around the pond? There’ no other trails, and we pretty much scoured the whole way up here, and it’s probably in this clearing somewhere. But I’m putting my foot down young lady; you are not going back out on that pond!”

“I wasn’t planning on it Eridan, I’m not a fool! That was such a scary experience I’m not exactly planning on repeating ever again!”

They wandered the clearing looking high and low for the wooden bowl. After they had searched for what felt like an hour they looked at each other. Nepeta threw her arms up in the air and collapsed into a snow drift. Eridan stood with his arms crossed and looked around the clearing. He shrugged and sat down in the snow next to her.

“Let’s just go back the cabin! It’s freezing out here and I want more cocoa, maybe some tea,” Nepeta muttered, “a game isn’t worth freezing your butt off for.”

He prodded her thigh with a finger, “says the one that’s laying in the snow,” he chuckled and stood, brushing snow off his pants, “I’m pretty sure Jade and John will get the stuff we couldn’t find later today since they’re the ones that know where it is.”

Nepeta leapt up and took off running down the hill towards the house, “race you there! Catch me if you can!”

He didn’t catch her until they had made it into the front yard of the house. He grabbed her and swung her around and said, “Caught you,” before setting her down again and walking with her hand in hand the rest of the way to the house. When they walked in the house Equius and Aradia were cuddling on a couch in the den watching the beginning of a Disney movie. Nepeta ran into the dining room and whipped up hot cocoa for them all, when she came back Aradia was explaining that they couldn’t find one thing, and that it was really cold, so they’d abandoned hope and came back to watch a movie.

“Well in my book that means you two are still winning unless one of the other pairs comes back with all their stuff! John and Jade sure do know a thing or two about leading you on! You think you have it in the bag and then you can’t find anything else,” Nepeta laughed as she handed around the cocoa. She sat down next to Eridan in a big overstuffed chair and they all watched the movie and sipped their drinks. Soon after the door banged open and Vriska stumbled in, looking half frozen.

“I warned you about the snow pits under the trees Vris. Why didn’t you, uh, listen to me?” Tavros scolded as he shut the door behind him.

“Because who e-ever h-heard of s-stupid s-s-s-snow p-pits before?” Vriska stuttered through her chattering teeth, “that’s the s-s-stupidest thing I’ve ever h-h-h-heard in my entire l-l-life. S-s-snow p-p-pits…”

“Come here Vriska, take off your, uh, coat so I can put it by the, uh, fire. Then I’ll grab your blue blanket and bring it down here for you.”

He helped her strip out of her coat and her boots and then sat her on the couch closest to the fire. He ran up the stairs and brought her an extra pair of socks, a dark blue sweater, and a thick, fluffy blanket. He swaddled her in all of this, then ran to the dining room and made her a big cup of tea. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his lap and stroked her hair. She drank her tea and let out a sigh.

“Such a good boyfriend,” she whispered as she dosed off. Tavros blushed and beamed and took the mug out of her hands and kept stroking her hair.

“What actually happened out there Tavros?”

“She was, uh, reaching for a scarf in a pine tree and the snow gave way under her. She was stuck in the snow for, uh, about thirty minutes while I, uh, tried to dig her out. She was turning blue a little and, uh, I was getting worried,” Tavros ran his fingers through her hair again.

Feferi trotted through the door with raised arms. She looked and saw everybody already back she looked crestfallen, “I thought we would get back first. We found everything,” she explained as she grabbed a bag from Sollux’s hand, “see we got it all.”

Nepeta smiled at her, “Actually you guys are the only team that got everything, and we all gave up for various reasons!”

Feferi beamed and high fived Sollux who just shrugged, “I’m going to go chill in the Jacuzzi,” he muttered.

Feferi frowned at him and set the bag of stuff on the floor and walked over to a chair, “I don’t know what’s with him lately. He just always seems upset and moody.”

Nepeta looked up and saw Aradia shake her head almost unnoticeably. Nepeta shrugged and said, “If you want Fef, you can bunk up in my room for the night if you want.”

“Oh Nepeta, we should all have a mini slumber party! Wouldn’t that be fun? All of us girls?” Feferi looked at the younger girl with desperation in her eyes, “it sure would be a great way to end a fun day!”

Nepeta gave her a weary smile, “Yeah Fef, we can all chill in my room tonight, there’s plenty of room.”

Fef stood up with a grin, “I’m going to tell all the girls to meet up in your room after dinner! We’ll play all of those classic games and stuff, just like little kids!”

She bounded out of the room calling out the names of girls, leaping up the stairs two at a time. Nepeta knew the night would either be fun, or a total disaster. 


	13. Sleepovers and Surprises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's theme was a request of a friend, so yeah, sorry if it seems super weird or something.

As each of the girls filed in, they plopped down in random spots around Nepeta’s room. She was already there, wearing flannel pj pants, a tank top, and her usual hat. Feferi was the next one, wearing a matching set of light pink baby doll shorts and shirt. Terezi, nearly running into the doorframe due to lack of glasses, wore a large tee shirt and track shorts. Following her was Vriska and Aradia. Vriska was wearing dark blue lace undies with a Phantom of the Opera tee shirt she stole from Tavros, and Aradia had on a red, knee length night gown. Roxy came bumbling though the door, already a bit tipsy, wearing knee high socks, track shorts, and a tank top. Scolding her for her drinking habits, Jane followed behind her, clad in a knee length flannel nightie. Rose stumbled in, laden down with extra pillows and wearing a pink camisole and shorty shorts dyed black, Kanaya right behind her, in a black silk nightgown. Bringing up the rear of the pj parade is Jade, wearing lime green shorts and a black tank top, carrying a large thermos of coffee, just to make sure the girls don't get much sleep that night.

They all settled around the room like butterflies to a bed of wildflowers. They chatted about movies, fashion, sports, video games, books, school, and boys. When they got to boys Kanaya and Rose blushed and moved closer together. Kanaya looked at Rose and smiled, “who needs a boy when you have the perfect girlfriend?”

Aradia, Terezi, Nepeta, and Jade smiled and chuckled at this revelation, they already knew. Roxy, Jane, Vriska, and Feferi all gaped and stared at the two.

“Wait, what?!” Vriska stared at them, her glasses sliding off the end her nose, she grabbed them and put them back on roughly, “since when?!”

“Since a long time ago Vriska,” Kanaya replied peacefully.

“WAAAAT?!” Roxy shot up from where she was sitting and almost fell back down onto Jane, “Rose what are you saying?! Kanaya and you?! My little sister, well wow, oh my GOD.”

Feferi just smiled at them, she clapped her hands together, “that’s great you two, I know you’ve been good friends but I never would’ve guessed! You’re both so subtle, not like the two flamboyant boys we all know and love.”

“D’awwwwwwww that’s so sweet and cute, I need a tissue!” Jane squealed.

The girls all laughed and the party continued with gusto, they tried playing Monopoly, but Roxy chucked her piece at Rose when she bought the last purple property she’d needed, and they hadn’t been able to find it. They played Twister, but Nepeta couldn’t reach the colors because of her tiny stature. They played truth or dare, until Terezi dared Nepeta to go wake Eridan with kisses.

“I don’t think it would be a great idea,” she said, “I think he went downstairs to sleep on a couch because of the potential loudness we would cause. I don’t want him to be grumpy and mad at me!”

“Oh come on it won’t be so bad. He probably won’t even wake up, he sleeps like a log anyways,” Feferi mused.

“I bet she just doesn’t want to see him all snoring and covered in drool!” Vriska bawled.

“That’s not true he doesn’t do any of that,” Nepeta pouted, “he fell asleep with me on the couch remember? I wasn’t woken up by snores, and I wasn’t covered in drool when I woke up either.”

“Ha yeah you’re right she knows these things huh?” Vriska winked.

Aradia showed them a picture on the screen on Nepeta’s camera. It was the one she’d snapped of them while they were sleeping. Vriska snatched it up and looked at it closer, squinting her eyes and then passing it to Feferi, “When did he become hot?” She asked as the camera was passed all the way around the room.

“It’s probably because he doesn’t have such a crappy expression on his face. He looks at peace here,” Aradia explained with a shrug.

Nepeta blushed as she looked at the picture. He was half sitting up, with her leaning up against his chest. Their fingers were entwined together and they rested just above her lap. His face really did look at peace. She remembered what Terezi had said about how mean he was, and she couldn’t see it at all. She’d seen him have a little attitude with people, but never had she seen him outright bullying someone. She looked around the room and watched them discuss what to do next, it was pretty late, but most of them didn’t want to go to bed yet.

“Let’s play truth or dare some more,” Vriska suggested. People nodded in agreement, and so they all turned to face each other from their various sitting arrangements.

“Nepeta, how about you ask somebody something?” Feferi offered, “Since you were the last one to be asked and you can’t exactly do that.”

“Okay no problem. Um, lemme think for a minute,” Nepeta looked around the room to choose her prey, thinking of different things she could ask or dare each girl. Then she had a brilliant idea.

“Everybody, truth or dare?”

“Wait a minute, is that even allowed?” Vriska muttered.

The girls all looked at each other in confusion and then the majority said dare.

“I dare all of you to tackle kiss your significant others at breakfast time! If you don’t have one, pick somebody to! Bonus points if you seriously do that to a random guy if you don’t have one.”

“That’s not much of a dare,” Terezi said, “I attack Karkat with kisses every morning just to fluster him. It’ll be routine.”

“Well I’m going to do it,” Vriska exclaimed with an evil chuckle, “I think Tavros would enjoy the attention.”

“If he didn’t stutter himself to death,” Jade giggled, “Dave will probably just act all cool and then freak out later, I want to see the reaction.”

All the girls laughed and agreed to Nepeta’s challenge, only if she would do it too.

“Of course I will, we should coordinate it to be like a flash mob or something, they’ll never see it coming!”

The teenagers snickered at their plans, and the time and place was set for their little flash mob.

“Hey Aradia, can you come with me to the kitchen? I want to get some cocoa,” Feferi asked as she stood up.

“Yeah sure Fef,” Aradia stood up and followed her down the stairs into the kitchen.

“Aradia, lately it seems like, well, Sollux has been drifting away from me. I don’t know what it is that I’m doing wrong here. I’m asking you because you knew him before I did, and you were his girlfriend first. He just, well, he seems to prefer your company over mine,” Feferi said as she stared into the cup she’d grabbed, “I’m not saying you’re stealing him or anything! I know how much you care about Equius now. I just know that he upset you the other day or something and I-I…” she started to cry, “I just don’t understand what his problem with me is.”

Aradia stood shocked at the other girl’s speech. She looked down at the ground, feeling bad that she couldn’t tell Feferi the whole story, “Yes he did come and talk to me the other day, I’m sorry Fef, but I can’t really divulge the details of the, um, conversation to you or anybody else. I can tell you that I’d never ever steal Sollux from you! I do love Equius, in all his overly strong, sweaty glory,” she chuckled and grinned a little, “Sollux is just confused about some things right now, and maybe he just wants a little space? You know he has problems Feferi; you should always keep that in mind before you get upset like this. It will only upset him more than he already is if he thinks you’re doubting your relationship,” she drew the slightly shorter girl into a hug and tearing up a bit.

“I just don’t know Ari! What do I have to do to keep him happy? He just suddenly gets super sad out of nowhere and it upsets me.”

“He has mood swings Fef, he has his entire life. He can’t help it, and it gets more so when he’s stressed. Please don’t be mad at him Fef, he loves you, he’s just confused,” she comforted the other girl and slowly sank into pain herself. She hated that she couldn’t tell Fef the truth, but if she did it could compromise her relationship with Equius, and she wasn’t about to let that happen because Sollux was having issues. She pet Feferi’s hair a little bit more and then stepped back and looked into her face, “so how about that hot cocoa?”

Feferi wiped her eyes and nodded, the two girls moved around the kitchen silently making up their cups of cocoa. Aradia held Feferi’s cup on the way back so she could splash water onto her face and freshen up. They walked back into Nepeta’s room and heard a couple groans.

“Where’s my cup Fef?” Vriska whined from her mound of pillows and blankets.

“Get off your butt and make your own,” she retorted.

“Ladies, relax. If it is such a big deal Rose and I will be glad to make you all cocoa,” Kanaya stood up and offered her slender hand to Rose. She took it, stood up and leaned into Kanaya’s embrace. They walked out of the room and before the door could shut they saw Rose reach up and peck the lankier girl on the lips.

“That’s just adorable! I can’t even believe it my gosh,” Jane gushed and turned to Roxy, “RoLal what’s the matter?!”

“My little sister…has a _girlfriend_! I’m so _happy for her_! She deserves it,” Roxy wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and collapsed against Jane’s stomach, “I’m so happy for her yay my little sister,” she reached over and took an idle sip out of her ever present martini glass.

“Roxy that’s the sixth one you drunk,” Jane grabbed the glass from her and set it on the floor, “and get off of me your head is heavy.”

After Kanaya and Rose came back with the cocoas they all decided they would go to bed. They were going to wake up early and gussy each other up for the big show. Feferi reminded them of the grandfather clock in the dining room, and that it would chime. On the fourth chime of eight they would strike.

***

The day dawned on the exhausted girls. Feferi allowed them to use the master bathroom to quicken the pace of their preparations, and they all swiftly showered and dressed in their cutest winter wear. Aradia wore a falu red wool knit sweater dress with a dark indigo blue fabric scarf around her neck. She wore dark gunmetal grey leggings that were tucked into fawn colored boots. Nepeta was in her India green cashmere sweater that they had bought at the mall, and she paired it with a pair of Phthalo green jeans and her black boots. Kanaya wasn’t really dressed up, but to keep with the trend she wore a black and jade sweater with her favorite red skirt and a pair of dark red boots. Terezi was brightly colored in a Persian green and black long sleeve shirt and a pair of red skinny jeans. She wore a black bomber jacket over the ensemble and finished it off with her half calf boots Vriska had given her for her birthday. Vriska donned her cobalt double breasted coat with the gold buttons over light grey jeans, and had her knee high black boots on, and she had contacts in that day. Feferi was in a cute fuchsia half sweater that went to her midriff with a black shirt underneath, and black jeans with fuchsia lined black suede boots.  Jade had a green long sleeve dress on with black and white leggings and red shoes. Rose wore a simple black shirt over a mauve under shirt and black jeans. Roxy was passed out in her heap of pillows and blankets still, and Jane had decided to stay with her to give her cinnamon bread and aspirin when she woke up.

The girls made their way downstairs like a flock of luminously colored birds. They had done up their hair and everything, Kanaya even getting a few dabs of makeup onto Nepeta. They went into the den to await their hapless prey. The boys wandered around and gave them all looks when they noticed how nice they looked.

“I scent danger in the air,” Equius joked to a few of the others.

“Yeah what’s up with them being all like, decked out like a freaking runway show or something?” Dave muttered as he took in how pretty Jade looked, “I think these chicks are up to something.”

“I think they, uh, look super pretty! I like how they did this, seeing that, uh, the week is almost over and we all gotta go home soon,” Tavros grinned from ear to ear, “they all have their own style too.”

Eridan only had eyes for Nepeta, and he smiled lazily as he nodded at what they were all saying, “they do look nice don’t they men?” he asked in a drowsy voice.

By 7:45 everybody was sat down at tables with their food and breakfast was underway. Feferi had had a long table with bench seats put up in the dining room instead of the normal small round ones, which would make the whole plan easier. One of the girls had filled in Dirk so he could be a part of the mob too. He grinned a little as he sat next to Jake who was digging into his food with the normal relish.

At 7:59 the girls, plus Dirk, all started to scooch a little bit away from their boys, who didn’t seem to notice anything out of the norm at all. Only Eridan noticed the sudden lack of warmth beside him as Nepeta scooted away. He turned and looked at her with an upraised eyebrow as the grandfather clock began to chime the hour. The girls, plus Dirk, grabbed their boys and looked them in the eyes. At the fourth chime, they all went in for their kisses.

The reactions were hilarious.

Equius at first tensed up and then began to sweat a little, gently wrapping one arm around Aradia’s waste to steady them so they wouldn’t fall off the backless bench. Eridan wasn’t quite so lucky, he and Nepeta toppled to the floor laughing, yet somehow she managed to keep peppering his lips with kisses. Karkat’s shout was cut off by Terezi and he almost pushed her away, but found that he couldn’t and pulled her into a tight hug. Kanaya lightly kissed Rose and continued to eat her breakfast; Rose chuckled and watched the unfolding scene. Vriska had pulled herself into a surprised Tavros’s lap and he remained a rigid stick until she brushed his cheek with her hand, and he melted and kissed her back. Dave figured it was coming and leaned in for his kiss form Jade smoothly. Feferi and Sollux were just looking into each other’s eyes.

“I love you Sollux,” she whispered to him.

“I love you too Fef, I really do,” and then she launched herself at him and they fell to the ground like Eridan and Nepeta.

Dirk just coughed once and kissed Jake lightly. The tan boy blushed furiously and chortled, almost choking on the piece of bacon he’d been chewing. Roxy appeared at the last minute in her favorite white and pink sweater and first kissed a bottle of vodka, and then jumped John and smooched him on the cheek before bounding away to grab a muffin and drape herself over a couch. Jane blushed and sat next to Gamzee and pecked his cheek. He cocked an eyebrow at her and lazily took a swig of Faygo, which he then offered her and she took a sip and grinned.

“I think Janey has something going there,” Roxy whispered to Dirk and Jake, “Whadda ya think guys?”

“I think it would be funny, I though Jane didn’t like jocks,” Jake answered.

“Ha right, Gamzee might be a baseball star but he definitely isn’t a jock, he doesn’t even hang with the other players that much,” Dirk scoffed.

“Either way, he better not steal my Janey, I need her to keep me from getting too hung over.”

“Roxy, if you didn’t drink so much you wouldn’t get hung over if you didn’t booze it up almost every night.”

“Shaddup Dirk I will drink however much I want,” she muttered as she brought up her vodka bottle, “See Dirky he’s my best friend!”

“I’ll tell Jane the booze rates higher than her on your friends’ priority list,” Dirk retorted.

“Shaddup Dirk I’m getting a headache!”

“That’s your ‘best friend’ for you.”

***

Everybody was in high spirits as the week in the mountains came to a close. The Saturday they were going to leave came and everybody piled into the bus to go back into town. When they got back to the school parking lot everything was good and they swiftly unpacked their bags and went their separate ways. They all still had two weeks of winter break they could spend with other friends and family, and they all planned to use the time well.

“I’ll see you in a couple weeks, ok Nep?” Eridan bent down and gave her a quick kiss before climbing into the black car that arrived shortly after the bus.

“Bye Eri! I hope you like the present I got you. You promise not to open it until Christmas?” she asked him before he shut the door.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise! Don’t forget mine alright?”

“I won’t. See you,” she said with a grin as he shut the door.

“See you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My friend ships Gamzee and Jane, I didn’t even know it existed but it will serve a purpose here *shrugs*. I hope you enjoyed Christmas break in the mountains! Next chapter will probably be a Christmas day kind of thing, and then maybe New Years? After that we get back into the school year, and Calliope and Caliborn will be back! Hope you all enjoy the story, and feedback is greatly appreciated!


	14. Christmas Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It makes me laugh that this is published in time for the holidays on here. Comments are always welcome and much appreciated.

Eridan opened his eyes on Christmas day and let out a gusty sigh. He as home all alone again this year, with his mother off to an important last minute business meeting and his father away on his yacht with his CEO friends, like he had been every year for as long as he could remember. He swung his legs out from under his blankets and sat up on the edge of his bed. He put his face in his hands and sat still for a moment before grabbing his glasses and putting them on. He looked over at the mahogany dresser across his room at his small stack of presents, the largest of which was the one from Nepeta. He got up and stretched, and meandered over to look down at the small stack.

He picked up the smaller of the two packages from his parents and shook it a little before peeling off the wrapping paper. It was a 64 gig iPod touch; he set the thing down with a sigh and picked up the next gift. This one was probably from his dad, and it probably had to do with ships or the ocean. He opened it and sure enough it was a large book about ocean currents and stars. He rolled his eyes and tossed it back on the dresser. He took his last gift and took it back to his bed to open it. When he opened it he discovered two boxes under the wrapping paper. There was a note taped to the smaller box ‘open the big one first’.

When Eridan opened the larger of the two, a small gasp left his mouth. 'Now when had Rose taught Nepeta to knit?' he thought to himself, as he pulled the deep purple sweater from the box. It was simple and elegant, and all the same shade of amethyst except for one sleeve, which like the other, extended to his knuckles and had a hole for his thumb. From the wrist down, it was the same shade of green as Nepeta’s bright eyes, and when he turned the sleeve over, a small heart had been embroidered on the palm. Eridan had the biggest grin on his face and rushed to grab his jeans and shoes, to go wish her a merry Christmas and thank her for the beautiful gift. After he pulled the sweater over his head, he looked at his right palm and smiled even wider, happy he could even hold her hand in his mind. 'It even smells like her', he grinned even wider, if possible. He took the heart on his palm and pressed it to his chest, 'this is unbearably cheesy, but so worth it.' he thought.

There was another note in an envelope in the box with the sweater. He picked it up and opened it to reveal Nepeta’s handwriting filling up the small page.

‘Eridan,

                I know that you probably have a hundred sweaters at home, and you probably don’t even need it, but I thought it would be nice to make this for you. Rose helped me and I used the measurements they had from before, even if it is a little too big I think. I hope you like it even if it isn’t quality like you’re probably used to. I know that you’re going to be all alone for Christmas, and my parents said it’s ok if you come over for dinner or something so you don’t have to eat alone. It won’t be fancy, but it will be filling!

I’ll see you if you decide to come over.

Love,

Nepeta’

Walking out the door, he nearly forgot the smaller gift, which looked like a mix CD. When he got into his car and on the highway to her house, Eridan popped the CD in the player and pressed play. He actually teared up a bit at what he heard. What Eridan had assumed was a mix CD of good music, was actually her voice, singing a song she wrote about him, and them. As Nepeta’s voice poured out of the speakers, Eridan had to jerk the car off to the shoulder to take a breath. He slumped forward onto the steering wheel and listened to the song, with his right palm against his heart again.

He pulled back onto the road and drove into town, stopping at the supermarket to pick up a couple bottles of sparkling cider to celebrate with. He grinned as he pulled up to the front of her house and walked up to the front door, enjoying how homey the place was. He knocked on the door a few times and waited, shuffling his feet before Nepeta opened it up.

“Eridan! You came,” she jumped up and hugged him, he swung her around and smiled, “and you’re wearing the sweater I made you! Oh my goodness it doesn’t look too terrible I suppose.”

He pecked her lips with a kiss, “I love it! It’s the nicest gift I’ve gotten in a while,” Eridan held up the bag with the cider in it, “I brought this to drink with dinner for everybody, there’s also another gift for you inside there.”

She took the bag and pulled out the iPod, “Eridan you can’t be serious! This thing is a fortune; you can’t just _give_ this to me!”

“I already have like, two. So don’t worry about it. You can put all that lovely music you made on it.”

“Oh fine whatever you say, and cider! Mommy’s favorite,” she took the cider and put it in an ice bucket she had. Then she took Eridan’s hand and led him into the living room.

Her mom was sitting in a wheelchair next to her dad’s armchair. Nepeta smiled as she pulled Eridan over to the couch and sat down, “I told you he would show up you guys,” she patted his leg, “he brought sparkling cider mommy! I know it’s your favorite!”

“How delightful! What a thoughtful young man,” the older woman’s slightly lined face shined with a smile, “I really do love a good glass of cider.”

“It will be great with dinner! Let’s watch A Christmas Carol,” Nepeta turned on their small TV and leaned against Eridan. Pounce came out and jumped onto his lap and curled up to take a nap. He idly pet her with his only free hand. They all laughed at the movie and Nepeta always said the ‘you’ll shot yer eye out kid’ line and giggled like a mad woman.

‘So this is what it’s like to spend the holidays with family,’ he thought as the movie came to a close. Nepeta jumped up and ran into her parents’ room and brought out a little pile of packages.

“Here mommy, this is for you,” she handed her mom two packages, one he assumed was from her and one from her dad, “daddy this is yours,” she handed him a small giftwrapped box.

“Oh honey this is beautiful,” Nepeta’s mother let the new dark green night gown drape down to the floor, it looked like something that was very warm to wear, “it’s too beautiful Nepeta! Come give me a hug honey,” Nepeta bounded over and hugged her mom tightly before turning to her dad.

“Look at these! These are some nice mittens, and look at this sweater! It’s so soft,” the man rubbed the fabric against his face, “Nepeta you really are a wonderful daughter.”

“Oh daddy stop it,” she gave him a hug and then sat down and held up three presents, “I guess it’s my turn to open up my gift huh?”

She unwrapped a hefty package from her dad and held up an encyclopedia all on different cat species. She grinned and set the book down and unwrapped the one from her mom. It was a beautiful green and purple afghan blanket she had been working on for years. Nepeta’s eyes started to water and she hugged the blanket to her like she would never let it go. She wrapped it around her shoulders with a beaming expression on her face and picked up Eridan’s gift.

She unwrapped the paper from it and held up two books. One was a sketchbook; the other was a photo album. She opened up the sketchbook and gasped, they were pictures of her. There were water colors, charcoals, pastels, and pen and pencil sketches. She turned towards Eridan with upraised brows, “since when have you been an artist?”

“Since always. Take a look at the photo album; we worked on it all year. It’s from all of us.”

She looked at the cover of the album and saw the picture Terezi had had a waitress snap of them at the pizzeria. Her smile widened as she recognized pictures from classes, lunches, and helping out her friends. There was the one of her and Calliope cheering Equius at his match, there was the time she’d gone up to see the green house with Jade and Dave and she had held a tiny frog. She had to wipe her eyes a little at the ones from the Halloween ball, and Homecoming. There was a picture of her and Eridan dancing the last dance at the masquerade. When she finished she handed the album to her mom and dad so they could look through it and took her gifts into her room. When she returned she grabbed Eridan and pulled him into the kitchen.

“Help me with dinner,” she demanded playfully as she pulled out a big turkey from the refrigerator, “you can help me get this stuffed and in the oven and then we can make some casseroles and yams! I love yams!” She pulled a box of stuffing mix down from the cabinet and handed it to him, “Follow the directions, it shouldn’t be that hard,” she set to work on the turkey at the sink.

Eridan looked at the box with a blank expression on his face. He flipped it over and checked the instructions. He turned to look at Nepeta and blanched as she pulled out the pieces from inside the turkey. He’d never seen someone actually cooking something. He frowned and turned his back to the sink and stared at the box. ‘What am I even supposed to do with this stuff anyways?’ he thought to himself.

“Which set of directions?” he asked desperately.

Nepeta turned around and saw his expression, “You’ve never cooked before have you?” she rinsed off her hands and toweled them before grabbing the box, “here let me do this one, I’ve had potatoes cooking, do you think you can mash them?” She asked as she pointed at a pot of potatoes that had cooled down, then at a potato masher, “you just have to use upper body strength, you can do this,” she moved the pot over to the island counter where he sat down, “I’m sure you wouldn’t want to touch the turkey anyways.”

He shook his head as he took the masher, “you are absolutely right Nep, and I won’t touch raw meat unless it’s in sushi.”

“Don’t be a baby Eri or I’ll throw the neck at you.”

He ducked behind the pot and the counter, “please don’t Nepeta…no get away!”

She had been slowly advancing with the turkey neck in hand, chasing him around the island, “get back to your potatoes young man! You’re being completely useless to me! No pie for you tonight if you don’t get those mashed up.”

“I can’t exactly mash them while I’m running away from you and your gross raw stuff! Get away Nepeta ew no please! OK OK I’M GOING DON’T TOUCH ME PLEASE!”

He ran back to the pot and started to mash the potatoes furiously. Nepeta hooted to herself and went back to cleaning and stuffing the bird. When that was done she stuck it in the oven and checked the potatoes, adding milk, salt, and butter and moving him over to the stove, “Don’t stop stirring these got it?” She quizzed as she moved away to grab ingredients for green bean casserole. Eridan nodded and continued to stir and mash the potatoes.

After she'd almost finished the casserole and set it aside to add the French fried onions and be put in an oven, she checked the potatoes and nodded, pushing them to a back burner,, “you and I are going to make yams now okay?” she gave him a look and held up a big can of yams, “this right here is my favorite thing about the holidays,” she thunked the can on top of another one just like it, “the excuse to pig out on yams! They are the best Eri!” She excitedly grabbed the can opener and tore into the first can, “one can gets all mashed up! Then the other can is just chopped up real fine, then we add butter, brown sugar, molasses, mix it all up, and top it with marshmallows and cinnamon brown sugar soft granola! I’m drooling just thinking about it,” she dumped the first can into a bowl and handed him the masher, “mash, now.”

“Yes your highness,” Eridan chuckled as he set to work on the yams in the bowl. Nepeta opened up the second can and drained it into the sink and chopped them up. Then she added them to the mashed ones, added her ingredients to them, and mixed it up until it was totally blended, then poured the whole mess into a glass pan and added the marshmallows and soft granola. By now the turkey had been in the oven for almost an hour and a half, and she decided the casserole and the yams could wait so everything could come out at once. She pulled out a pan of mac and cheese she’d cooked up the night before and set it on the counter next to the rest to be browned in the oven. She grinned and nodded to herself proudly.

“We have two hours to kill before anything else needs to go in the oven, so let’s see what mommy and daddy are watching on TV.”

They walked into the living room and her mom smiled at them from her seat, “Things smell wonderful Nepeta! I’m so proud and thankful that you’ve pulled this off sweetie. I feel bad for not being any help in the kitchen.”

“It’s okay mommy, I’m having fun and with Eri helping me we got everything done really fast! He might look like a slacker but he’s a big help,” Nepeta poked him in the ribs and turned to her dad, “Daddy you’re wearing your sweater! It looks good on you! Are we going to watch Charlie Brown now?”

“Oh that’s right,” her dad got up and grabbed a VHS from a rack, “this has been a tradition for many years, we taped this on her first Christmas,” he explained as he stuck in the tape, “the Peanuts are a staple in this house.”

The four sat together and watched the show. Nepeta curled up and leaned against Eridan’s side. Her mom and dad held hands and smiled at the movie and their daughter. The aromatic scent of the turkey grew stronger and they paused it so Nepeta could check the bird. She returned with a grin and said that dinner would be done in about an hour, and she would be putting the end of the meal into the oven in thirty minutes. Her mom clapped and gave a little cheer and her dad started the last few minutes of the movie again. When it was over they all got together at the dining room table to sit over cups of eggnog. After a while of small talk Nepeta’s mother had a thought.

“So Eridan, why aren’t you spending the holidays with your parents? They must find it odd that you chose to spend Christmas with us folk instead of them,” Nepeta’s mom asked over her eggnog.

“Ah, well you see…my parents aren’t home at all. My father spends every year on his yacht with some of his rich friends, and my mother is off on a business trip doing whatever it is she’s on this time, but I guess she’s being paid huge amounts of cash for having to go out of the country and study a new language so I don’t really know. They don’t talk to me much about their lives and they don’t ask me much about mine so I guess if we actually sat down and had a meal together, it would be sort of awkward you know?” Eridan explained to them as Nepeta stood up to put everything in the oven for the last thirty minutes before dinner was totally done, “I don’t think I’ve spent a Christmas or Thanksgiving or anything like that with them since I was a little boy. As soon as I was able to work a microwave or make myself a sandwich they used every excuse they could to just hire a nanny and go do their own thing. My dad owns some big company I know nothing about, nor do I want to know anything about it, and my mom works for a fashion magazine or something like that. In general they aren’t home often; it’s just me and the workers at home. They have holidays off, so I pretty much just heat up some leftovers or make a sandwich every year, watch a little TV, open the couple of gifts they left me, and then go to bed,” he shrugged, “this is the first Christmas I’ve spent in a family setting in years.”

“That’s so sad,” Nepeta’s mom wiped a tear from her eye. She took her husband’s hand, “we cherish every year we get with our daughter, because we never know when the last one will be. I think it’s horrible that they don’t take the time out of their lives to be with you. I hope you will come and spend more time here. We will show you what it’s like to have a loving family, because you make our baby happy, and that’s something I will forever be grateful for. I know I won’t be alive very much longer, this illness is taking away many things, but to see her this happy has been a blessing, you are a blessing Eridan.”

Eridan blushed furiously. He’d never been called a blessing. A hindrance maybe, a screw up sure, but a blessing? Never in a million years, “ma’am I just adore her. She is the blessing not me, she makes my life a hundred times better than it ever has,” he stood up and gave her a hug, “I am thankful for you guys, I’m thankful for today. You guys don’t even know.”

Nepeta walked back in and surveyed teary eyes with confusion. She started to set the table with the china they had stashed away for special events. She pulled the silverware from pockets in her apron and set it up, put hot mats down for the dishes of the meal, and ran back into the kitchen as a timer started to beep. She came back a moment later with a golden brown turkey held in her oven mitted hands. She grinned widely at the amazing looking bird as she set it down in the center of the table and handed her dad the carving knife, “Care to do the honor Daddy?” She asked as she hurried back into the kitchen to bring out the casserole and the yams, and then the mashed potatoes, now in a large bowl, and the mac and cheese. She brought out a gravy boat with homemade gravy from the broth of the turkey, and then glasses and the cider. Her dad carved the bird well, and before Eridan knew what was happening his plate was heaping with the delicious looking fare. Once everybody’s plates were filled, Nepeta’s dad said a quick grace and let them dig in.

Everything was perfection. The turkey was moist the yams were sweet and appetizing, the mac and cheese was some of the best he’d ever tasted, he’d never had green bean casserole, but he decided it was one of his favorite foods. He didn’t even realize he was making little noises until Nepeta poked and chuckled.

“Are you going to dump me for my cooking? You’ve been making little yummy noises over there this whole time,” she giggled when he stared at her blankly, “it’s like you haven’t ever had a home cooked Christmas dinner or something.”

“Well I haven’t really but you don’t have to worry about it. This makes up for a hundred missed Christmas dinners,” he shrugged and made a show of taking a huge bite of turkey and pretending to melt over it until they were all laughing happily.

“It’s a good thing you have a sense of humor son, I always had the impression wealthy people didn’t like to joke around the table at meals. You know, civilized like and such,” her dad pointed a fork at him, “I like you because you act like a normal person despite your apparent wealth.”

‘He called me son, and he said he liked me…that’s a good thing right?’ Eridan thought as he chewed the mouthful of turkey. When he swallowed it he nodded and shrugged, “I eat alone all the time, I only act civilized at school or in public, the rest of the time I drink my soup from the bowl and eat everything with my hands,” he exaggerated his point by poking his pinky into a black olive and waving it about before popping it into his mouth, “no in all actuality I was raised with impeccable manners. But eating in silence when one is with such good company would be a terrible waste.”

Nepeta laughed, “I’m glad you enjoy the company! Now then, who’s up for some cider? I’m getting kind of thirsty!”

“Oh yes the cider. Let’s get that sweetie I’m looking forward to it,” her mom opera clapped as Nepeta popped open a bottle and poured her mom the first glass. She took a sip and beamed, “I haven’t had this cider in years, and it’s kind of expensive isn’t it?”

“No it’s well worth it to know it’s your favorite thing,” Eridan took his own now filled glass and took a sip; it was a very good cider. He stood up and smiled, “I’d like to make a toast to family, and the joy they bring to the holidays.”

They clinked glasses and finished the meal with happy banter from everybody. Nepeta brought out the pies she’d made before, a pumpkin and an apple pie, and served them all dessert with ice cream on top. Eridan helped Nepeta with the dishes and to put away leftovers while her mom and dad went to bed, her mom was wiped out from all the excitement and needed to lie down. They finished it up quickly and curled up on the couch with Pounce.

“So you had a good time?” Nepeta asked sleepily.

“Yeah it was a lot more fun than staying at home and wandering a big empty house alone. I like your parents; they seem so kind it’s a nice change.”

“I’m kind of sad though, this might be my mommy’s last Christmas, I’m really happy that it was a good enough day that she could come out and be with us, to eat dinner and watch TV. This is the first time in a couple of months she’s been able to spend the day out of bed. I’m not gonna get my hopes up that she’s getting better, the doctors told us that wouldn’t happen ever so...we try to live every day to the fullest,” she looked at him and smiled through watering eyes, “I think it’s a good thing you got to meet her twice on good days. That way you can remember her like this when she’s gone.”

“Nepeta, even if I’d met her on a bad day I’d still be happy that I met her. She’s a nice lady, I wish my mom was more like her then maybe I wouldn’t have such a crappy attitude all the time.”

“You don’t have a crappy attitude Eridan, I mean, I don’t know what you were like before but you aren’t the same.”

“I don’t know, I still have a pretty crummy attitude to other people I guess. It doesn’t really matter though, because I don’t really care what people think of me.”

Nepeta let out a sigh, almost falling asleep, the reporter on the TV said a snow storm was coming in, and many roads were going to shut down because of the snow. He whispered that he had to get going and walked with her to her room. She paused at the door long enough to give him a kiss before she went in and shut the door. Eridan made his way to the front door, walking out and locking it behind him as the snow began to fall. He wandered to his car and watched her light turn off. He got in and turned the heater on full blast before pulling away from the curb with one last look at what he now considered his second home.


	15. Chapter 15

Winter break ended with a party at Aradia’s house on New Year’s Eve. Calliope and Caliborn were there, having just gotten home from their mountain resort ski trip. Nepeta and Callie sat for hours showing each other pictures from their respective trips and telling stories. Caliborn mostly hung around Dirk and Jake, but he would wander around and make conversation every now and then.

“The trip helped him and papa bond I think,” Calliope said as she watched her brother talk to a couple girls, “I think it was good for him over all. I don’t think he’ll be so bad anymore.”

“That’s great Callie. I hope he can make some new friends and stuff now, and keep himself out of the principal’s office.”

“Oh look John’s going to play the piano.”

John sat down at the piano in the corner of the room and smiled, “I don’t have a name for this, but it’s for all of us, happy New Year’s everybody. I guess we can call it Unlabeled,” he chuckled and started to play a slow sweet song. Everybody stood or sat quietly as he played; a thing he always did wonderfully. He smiled a little as his fingers stroked the keyboard. When the song was over everybody cheered and smiled happily at him as he ambled away to rejoin the party.

“I think he should be a concert pianist someday, but I hear he wants to be a comedian or something,” Calliope commented, “although he would be a very funny comedian too! I went to a Comedy Sportz game once and it was so entertaining, he can come up with stuff in an instant.”

“I kinda want to go to a Comedy Sportz game, are they really as fun as I hear they are though? I guess it depends on your sense of humor,” Nepeta thought aloud.

“They are pretty fun,” Callie nodded, “though it does depend on the person, if you like stand up or slapstick comedy then you should like Comedy Sportz.”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just have to go to a game. Say Calliope, is this your dad?”

Nepeta pointed to a tall, hefty man in a ski suit. He was bald, but you could tell he’d been blonde. He had an awkward smile and he stood behind the thin form of Caliborn as he looked at the camera.

“Yeah that’s him! He’s so big and stuff a lot of people are frightened of him, but he really isn’t all that bad. Although in the business world he’s known for his killer scowl and his loud voice,” the blonde girl explained as she flipped the picture show to the next one, “we had a snowball fight too, see? It was me and Caliborn versus papa, of course he won cause he’s so strong,” she flipped the picture again, “there’s them going up the slope to ski back down,  and here’s them drinking coffee together in the morning, I left them alone together a lot so they could bond.”

They brought up the file of pictures from the cabin trip and started to go through them. Since Nepeta didn’t have a laptop they’d put them on Calliope’s.

“Well this one is undeniably endearing,” Callie pointed to the one of Nepeta and Eridan sleeping on the couch. Nepeta smirked and nodded, flipping the picture to the set from the sleepover, “everybody looks like they had so much fun! It’s funny that we all ended up in mountains, just really far away from each other.”

“Yeah well taking a bus is one thing, travelling halfway around the world is another,” Nepeta chuckled as she let Calliope take control of the slideshow. The fair-haired girl went through the pictures again, pointing out things she hadn’t noticed before. She smiled at all the pictures of couples Nepeta had managed to get.

“I think you’re a really good photographer. Everything looks so good in these pictures.”

“Well my dad let me use the good camera. We have a few from back when my mom used to go out and take pictures a lot so he thought they might as well get some good use since they’ve been sitting around for so long.”

“Oh wait; I didn’t see these ones yet! Are these Christmas pictures?” Calliope pointed to another folder within Nepeta’s picture folder, “Can I look at them?”

“Yeah sure go ahead, I’m going to get something to drink,” Nepeta stood up meandered through the crowd, waving at people as she made her way to the snack table. She spied Eridan deep in discussion with Dirk, Jake, and Caliborn, probably about upcoming events and themes for their club. Feferi was gesturing wildly about something to Aradia, Terezi and Vriska. Sollux was typing something on a computer and showing it to Karkat. Dave was messing around with a set of turntables with Tavros and Gamzee hanging around him. Jade, John, and Jane were scolding Roxy, more than likely about spiking something with vodka. Everybody else was doing various things; Aradia’s basement was a fun room of sorts so there were plenty of things to do.

Nepeta grabbed a plate of chips and some cookies and a couple glasses of punch and brought it back to where she was sitting. Calliope gushed about how cute her family was and how nice it was that Eridan had spent Christmas with them. Nepeta told her the story of the turkey neck and she cracked up until she was in tears. Some of the other girls wandered over to see what was so funny, and eventually Nepeta had them all laughing too.

Aradia and Equius came downstairs a few minutes later with stacks of pizza for everybody. Then she said that she would be turning on the main event of the night, the ball drop countdown to the New Year.

Everybody dug in and made their way over to the big screen TV as the New Year’s program came on the air.

 They watched performers sing and the announcers talk. As the time crept closer and closer to midnight the couples drifted together. The ball began to drop and everybody started to shout the countdown too.

“FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!”

School was finally back in session again, with the new semester brought new schedules for some of them.

“What do you mean you aren’t in first period English anymore Nepeta?!” Calliope whined as she sat with the other girl over breakfast at a place near the school, “I had a plan for our big final project of the year too!”

“Sorry Callie I got moved to 3rd period when I signed up for the creative writing class,” Nepeta bit into a piece of bacon, “besides, we can still do the project together even if we aren’t in the same class the teacher said that before we left for break.”

Calliope sat up straighter from her pouty slouch, “she did?! I left for vacation early remember? So I didn’t get that memo,” she framed her face with her hands, “that’s awesome that means we can still work together and I can still save my brother and maybe Dirk can help us too.”

“You’re right you know. I bet he’s willing to. He’s become kind of attached to Caliborn hasn’t he?”

“He likes to think of him as a surly, bratty little little brother. Dave isn’t like a little brother very much they’re almost like twins. So really he likes to pick on Caliborn  claiming that he wants to teach him ‘manners’ and make him act more gentlemanly. Honestly the boy can be absolutely dapper if he’s forced to be so but most of the time he just wants to bully everybody. He asked me to help him become a better artist you know.”

Nepeta almost choked on her pancake, “a _better_ artist oh my god, are you kidding? He – I can’t even Callie he is such a character no I simply cannot.”

“What he isn’t that…no okay I can’t even defend him a two year old can draw better than he can but listen, I’m happy he wants to get better. It’s another step in the right direction I think. Now that he’s not so down about thinking papa doesn’t love him he’s coming out of his shell!”

“That’s good; he really seems to be branching out with being a part of the host club now and all that. Oh, are you still going to dress up and go over there after school? I heard Roxy and Jane combined their club with the boys and now it’s like a super club or something. They rake in a lot of cash.”

“I think I will. Roxy is super cool and I really look up to her! She’s my favorite senior girl! I heard it’s going to be crazy soon, because a bunch of our upperclassmen’s older family members, like brothers or sisters or cousins, are coming to visit for a college fair thing. I think it will be exciting to meet people’s families don’t you think?”

“Hmmm yeah it does sound like fun. I wonder if Eri has any cousins or something. I know he doesn’t have any brothers or sisters.”

Calliope wrinkled her nose, “I heard he has a cousin that makes him look like a saint. He, I guess, ‘tries’ to write songs to get chicks or something but it never works. I guess he has it hard for Fef’s big sister but she hates his guts or something like that. He’s a huge jerk that’s all I know.”

“Wow I’ve heard about his crappy attitude, and I guess it’s pretty bad but I’ve never experienced it before so I wouldn’t know. Terezi told me how mean he used to be to some people, and I guess he’s been better about it lately. I never expected someone to be that crappy sounding though.”

“Ha yeah I know right? Be careful or he might try to hit on you too or something while he’s here.”

The two girls laughed as they finished up their breakfast and headed out of the restaurant. They walked the short distance in the snow, kicking it around and talking more about classes and friends. They crossed the parking lot just as Terezi was pulling into a spot with Karkat and Gamzee in her car. She waved at them as she climbed out and grabbed her bag and Karkat’s hand, “hey girls what’s up? Have you heard about some of us lucky people with family coming for a visit in a couple of months?” She turned to Karkat with a smile, “I bet this guy is especially excited.”

“The hell I am! My brother is the most annoying human being on the face of this planet and I hope he chokes on something while he spews his idiotic social justice nonsense before he can get here. I can’t stand the thought of him and my dad getting together and preaching it up in the den while my mom grumbles in the kitchen because of how big a crab she is,” Karkat threw his free hand up in the air, almost hitting Gamzee in the face.

“Whoa little bro calm down, your brother isn’t so terribly bad at all. Even if he does talk way too much about things,” Gamzee turned lazily to look at his much shorter best friend, “at least he isn’t a total spazz like Sollux’s brother.”

“HA that guy is a mess and a half! Isn’t your cousin his girlfriend Terezi?”

“Yes, and he isn’t that bad. He had an accident a few years ago that made him a little funny in the head but that doesn’t mean you can make fun of him for it,” she pulled her hand away from his and crossed her arms, “I will admit that most of our relatives are not exactly the coolest bunch but still, they are family.”

After they had walked through the wide gate onto the campus they spotted Aradia chatting with Feferi.

“Hey girls what’s happening? Have you heard about our older family member’s involvement in the college fair?” Terezi asked as she led the small group over to them.

“Seeing that we’re the ones on the committee that’s forming the fair, I am well aware of their involvement,” Feferi pulled a small ledger out of her purse, “I am not too excited about my punk sister coming here and possibly smearing my name with her antics.”

“There’s absolutely no way my sis is coming anywhere near here. She goes to school in a different country and she can stay there,” Aradia scowled and crossed her arms, “she’s such a bloody freak of nature.”

 “She can’t possibly be that bad,” Calliope smiled up at the other girl.

“No, believe me she really is. I don’t even know if she bothers speaking English anymore she’s been tripping out on whatever since she graduated from here and just wow I try to pretend we aren’t related.”

“I told you our families are freaking idiots,” Karkat muttered to himself. Terezi rolled her eyes at him.

“Not all of them are totally bad! Tavros’s cousin was totally popular and cool remember? He was a senior when we were freshman.”

They had started to walk around the building to the area the group normally sat when Eridan came around the corner and skidded to a stop.

“Aradia, Feferi,” he said in a deadly calm tone, “would you like to inform me of why I just received this text message?” He held up his cell phone, and Fef leaned in nervously to read it. She leaned away after a moment and looked at Aradia.

“Well Eridan, as you know the student council holds a college and university faire for seniors every year, and as you _should_ well know we have representatives from the schools come in and talk about them. This year the principal wanted us to have alumni of our school come in from their respected schools. It just so happens he chose many of our older family members,” she gestured towards the text, “your cousin got into a high end music school, so he was chosen to represent it here.”

Eridan threw his arms up in the air, “you can hardly call him a musician! His music sucks, we all know this. Unless he got infinitely better since the last time I saw him he's going to embarrass that school.”

“Well Eridan your cousin isn’t the only family member that could be considered an embarrassment. You're just going to have to deal with it like the rest of us,” Aradia crossed her arms, “I don’t think any of us other than maybe Kanaya and Terezi here are looking forward to the reunion at all.”

“You guys are just jealous because you don’t have a totally rad chick for a cousin,” Terezi shrugged as she pulled Karkat over to sit down, “stop being a pain about it Eridan you just might show Nepeta your true colors.”

Eridan rolled his eyes and sighed, taking the girl in questions hand and pulling her over to sit down, “sorry about all that. That guy is a real player and he's annoying. I wouldn’t put it past him to put the moves on you just to spite me.”

“I’d give him what for,” Nepeta held up a fist and shook it a little, “I’d teach him a lesson he’d never forget!”

Feferi sat down next to her with a sigh, “somebody should have done that a long time ago. He needs it, but I don’t think it will be all that bad with them here you know? I guess family bonding is a good thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon they will arrive, very soon.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short Valentine's day chapter. I'll be getting back on track with writing soon as my laptop gets fixed.

“Eridan, it’s not that big a deal.”

“Yes it is a big damn deal, Nep, it’s the biggest fuckin deal to ever hit me square between the eyes.”

Nepeta stopped where she stood, eyeing him and rolling her eyes. It was Valentine’s Day, and he was planning on taking her somewhere, but a phone call had stopped him short, “I can’t fuckin believe that douche lord. He’s so useless I can’t believe him.”

Nepeta turned and looked around as Eridan slammed his keys into the door of his car, effectively setting off the alarm of his Volvo. He cursed, dropping his keys on the ground and stooping to pick them up, cursing the entire time until he shut off the alarm with a beep and unlocked the doors.

“Just get in Nep, I’ll get us going as soon as I can,” he ran his hands through his hair, bending and looking into the side mirror to make sure he still looked good. He checked his phone for messages, and then flipped it from vibrate to silence. He climbed into the car and sighed, sticking the keys in the ignition and starting the purring engine with a vroom. He turned to her and gave her a half, lopsided grin before peeling out of the parking lot excitedly. He turned up the sloping hill, heading into the richer part of town with a grin stuck to his features. He turned to look at Nepeta with a grin and taking her hand.

“I promised I’d be takin you out today and I didn’t lie. I’m taking you to the best place in town for dinner,” he smiled wider at this and squeezed her hand, “you’re going to love it I swear. An if you don’t enjoy it then I’ll take you somewhere else tomorrow.”

She rolled her eyes, watching the snowy expanse of their town fly past them as the continued to climb the slope to the high end of town. She hadn’t been around there yet, even though she’d there her entire life. She looked around and shrugged, “I’m sure I will enjoy whatever you have planned for me,” she sat back and turned to look at Eridan, “so who was on the phone that you flipped out over?”

He turned and gaped at her for a second before turning back to the road with a grimace, “my cousin. He wants to come with me for spring break and I refused. I don’t want him fuckin up my perfect plans.”

“You’ve been cussing a lot lately. Have you been stressed or something?”

“Oh. No not really, I’ve just been thinking about some things that have been worryin me something fierce. No big deal though,” he ran a bejeweled ring over the scarf he was wearing, “also I got you something that’s a pretty big deal so I hope you don’t mind this kind a gift or something. It’s really a big fuckin deal to me Nep.”

She thought for a moment, looking down at their intertwined fingers before smiling, “you know me better than anyone else, I’m sure you picked something that I’ll love no matter what.”

They pulled into the parking lot of a small low building. A hand painted sign read The Glass Rose, and Eridan pulled into a reserved parking space. A man in a tuxedo opened the door for Nepeta, and she stepped out feeling ridiculously under dressed for such a fancy place. She turned to look at Eridan with a worried expression on her face.

“Don’t look at me like that Nep it’s no big deal. I used to come here after school all the time, so it’s not like you look too bad to come here at all,” he put his arm around her shoulders as they were walked to the back of the restaurant and into a small private room.

She scowled at him when she was tucked into the table and a menu was placed in front of her. She opened it and squinted, discovering only meal names in the thing, “Eridan, where are the prices?”

The boy looked up at her from his own menu, “hmm? Oh well they aren’t on the menu silly, they just get put on the check so you don’t have to worry about them.”

“Eridan, this place isn’t insanely expensive is it? What have I told you about taking me to places that are too expensive?!”

Eridan just waved his hand at her, “Nep if it was really that big a deal I wouldn’t insist on doing it now would I? so just take my word for it when I say it’s no big deal.”

She scowled one more time before picking something she hoped wasn’t too much off the menu and ordering it when the waiter came for their orders. It wasn’t long before their food had arrived and they were eating delicious food. Nepeta ate tiny bites of her bread bowl soup, and looked as Eridan cut his steak into bits before chewing in that dainty way of his, making it look like an art with his sculpted jaw.

He caught her looking and swallowed, smiling at her and covering her hand with his, “I have something for you, I hope you like it,” he said as he reached into his pocket and brought out a long slim box, holding it out to her to open.

She took the box, looking from it to his smiling face before opening it with a gasp, lifting the gold and alexandrite pendant from its velvet pillow. She turned to look at him with shock in her eyes before looking back at the pendant. The colors were their respected favorites, and it was of their zodiac symbols intertwined. She set it into her palm before turning to look at him, gaping slightly.

He blushed slightly, taking in her expression, “I thought you wouldn’t want to wear a ring around already, so I thought you would enjoy a necklace. I had it custom ordered just for y-”

He couldn’t finish because she leaped around the table and showered his face in kisses. He wrapped his arms around her tightly before reaching for the necklace. She turned around, pushing her short hair out of the way before he clipped the clasp and she turned back to him, the purple and green pendant winking at her throat. She smiled at him, blushing slightly before sitting back down.

“So you thought about getting me a ring? I would’ve worn it. It would mean a lot to me, just as this does,” she fingered the necklace before picking up her spoon again with a dazed smile.

“I only didn’t want to do it because I don’t want people thinking I’m taking you over or something. Some of those guys still don’t think I’m serious even after all these months. Fuckin stupid if you ask me,” he stabbed his fork into the last piece of his steak angrily before sighing, “I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you, Nep, not even my own family.”

She blushed harder, looking down at her food to hide the bright red of her cheeks and pushing her spoon gently through her soup. She breathed a sigh before looking up at him, her eyes glistening slightly with unshed tears, “I love you too Eridan. You make me feel really special even though I know I’m not,” she blushed again and took a sip of her fizzy cider, “I mean I’m not even part of your social hierarchy. I’m just a scholarship freshman with no special talents. You could’ve picked Terezi or Vriska or any of those girls, you’ve known them all your life, but you’ve only known me this year. Maybe that’s why you chose me, because I am a new girl, different from the others. I guess that could be why but I don’t know,” she shrugged and looked into his eyes, “I guess it doesn’t really matter does it? It really doesn’t, because we have something pretty nice here.”

It was Eridan’s turn to blush, “I just…really like you. So it’s really not like any horrible thing to think that I do or not, because I like you for who you are. You fix people. You help them reconnect with the things they care about an that makes a person really happy. Just look at the miracles you’ve brought on this sorry excuse for a group we have. With Vris and Tav dancing around each other for years and you just hit the issue right on the head and got it to work,” he sighed and rubbed his face, turning to look at her with a smile, “you done? I think I’m taking you home with me tonight.”  
  
She nodded and Eridan stood and opened the door, walking out and collecting the bill, paying it with a card before walking back to Nepeta, taking her hand and leading her back to the car. He opened the door for her and let her get settled inside, shutting the door and walking over to the other side. He got in and smiled at her through the gloom, starting up the car and pulling into the street. Once he got them moving he took her hand again, letting her choose where to put the heat.

They zoomed through town, and after a while they began climbing another hill. She knew Eridan’s house was secluded, off the beaten track. They finally pulled up to a huge, white pillared place at the top of the hill. He pulled into the driveway, stopping the car and staring at the huge, dark building.

“Both my parents are away on business, so I’ve had the house all to myself. It’s not really like I’m not used to it though, I’m almost always alone here, it’s a completely normal thing.”

She shook her head as they walked into the house, the dimly lit corridors leading throughout the home. Eridan took her hand and led her up the stairs to his room, opening the door to reveal the neat interior. She walked over and sat on his tall bed, kicking her feet as she watched him fret around. Nepeta climbed off the bed and walked over to him and hugged him tightly.

“It really is no big deal, Eridan, it’s not like we’re doing anything for you to freak out about,” she smiled at him sweetly before walking back to his set of drawers to pull out a shirt, taking it into the bathroom to change. Once she had she walked back out she curled up on one side of his bed, and waited as he changed into pajamas. As soon as he did climb into the bed he wrapped his arms around the already dosing girl.

“Happy Valentine’s Day Nep. Sleep well darlin.”


End file.
